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Class 

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Copyright ]j^ 

COPVRIGHT DEPOSIT, 



HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE 
FOR TEACHERS 

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS 

FOR 

MANAGEMENT AND INSTRUCTION 



•The2)y ^o 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON . BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



JUL "2 1914 



HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE 
FOR TEACHERS 

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS 

FOR 

MANAGEMENT AND INSTRUCTION 



BY 



CHARLES A. McMURRY 

DIRECTOR OF TRAINING DEPARTMENT, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AND SUPERINTENDENT 

OF SCHOOLS, DEKALB, ILLINOIS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1914 

All rights reserved 



^4 



Copyright, 191 4, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1914. 



J. S. Gushing' Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 

©CIA374639 



:::) 



The hearty thanks and appreciation of the author 
are due to the Principals and Teachers of the City 
and to the Critic Teachers of the Normal Training 
Schools at DeKalb, whose close cooperation and 
criticism have helped to bring this material into its 
present shape. The statements on music were pre- 
pared by Miss Maude Nicholson. 



PREFACE 

This Handbook has a definite practical purpose, as 
follows : 

1. On the basis of experience in training and su- 
pervising teachers to point out a few of the positive 
requirements and limitations of schoolroom work. 

2. In order to get economy of time and effort, to 
state plainly the chief principles and conditions for 
securing efficiency. 

3. To set up concisely the standards and essentials 
of schoolroom practice. 

4. To point out common faults and bad habits. 

5. To show briefly the peculiar requirements of 
each common school study. 

6. To give help and guidance to young teachers 
and to remind older teachers of wrong tendencies. 

7. To suggest points of value to superintendents 
and supervisors. 

American teachers as a body are progressive and 
are in a developing process. They must grow while 
they teach. 

This book is particularly designed for use in Nor- 
mal and Training schools. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
SUGGESTIONS ON MANAGEMENT 

SECTION PAGE 

1. Management i 

2. Class Control and Room Control ... 4 

3. Orderliness in School Housekeeping ... 6 

CHAPTER H 

TEACHERS 

1. Superintendents, Supervisors, and Critics . . 10 

2. General Character and Qualifications of 

Teachers 13 

3. Difficulties and Faults of Inexperienced 

Teachers 17 

4. Growth of Teachers .21 

CHAPTER in 
CHILDREN 

1. Child Study 25 

2. Common Faults of Children 28 

3. Social Combinations among Children ... 30 

ix 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER IV 
CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION' 

SECTION PAGE 

1. The Planning of Lessons for Classroom Work 35 

2. Exercises not Included in the Larger Units of 

Study 39 

3. Oral Instruction and the Development Method 41 

4. Questioning . . . ... . . -47 

5. Attention 51 



CHAPTER V 
THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 

1. How TO Judge and Criticize Class Recitations 53 

2. Where to Center Attention 56 

3. Formal Routine and Humdrum .... 59 

4. How Time is Wasted 62 

5. The Study Period 65 



CHAPTER VI 
GENERAL PROBLEMS 

1. Unsolved Problems 68 

2. General Principles ^l 

3. The Course of Study 73 

4. Textbooks and Apparatus . . . • • 75 



CONTENTS XI 



CHAPTER VII 

SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL 
STUDIES 

SECTION PAGE 

1. Language 'j-j 

2. Geography 88 

3. Reading 93 

4. Arithmetic 102 

5. Nature Study 113 

6. History 118 

7. Music 129 

8. Spelling 133 

9. Drawing 135 

10. Writing 136 

11. Manual Arts 137 

12. Interrelation between Studies . . . .138 



HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE 
FOR TEACHERS 

CHAPTER I 

SUGGESTIONS ON MANAGEMENT 

I. Management 

1. Few and quiet signals are indicative of strength 
in discipline. Be not noisy and demonstrative in 
securing order. 

2. Be deliberate and self -controlled in all matters of 
discipline. Keep down excitement and anger. 

3. Make but few requirements and only after full 
deliberation. Every order issued by the teacher 
amounts to a rule upon which his reputation is 
staked. 

4. In the main use suggestion rather than command. 

5. Cultivate firmness and decision with gentleness. 

6. Good discipUne is consistent and steady, not 
variable and inconstant. 

7. Deal promptly with individuals for any plain 
disorder so that the infection of disorder may not 
spread. 



2 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

8. Do not forget and neglect your own require- 
ments. 

9. One important rule or requirement steadily 
and persistently executed will sometimes settle the 
question of control and good order. 

10. Make a point of controlling the school or the 
class through your own influence and authority. 
Take advice from the principal but use self-reHance 
in room control. 

11. Be fair-minded and just. Secure the respect 
of children by honest deaHng. Justice is the funda- 
mental school virtue. 

12. Good discipline leads the children gradually to 
self-control and self-direction. 

13. The best discipline is that which is so quiet and 
natural that it becomes invisible. The teacher's 
authority is swallowed up and disappears in the 
proper school activities. 

14. Keeping children steadily and profitably occu- 
pied with school work is the chief means of main- 
taining good order. Push the work vigorously, and 
many disorders will disappear. 

15. Be slow in attributing fault to a child. Be 
slow to take offense because of a child's peculiar 
actions or disposition. 

16. Children should be treated with courtesy, with 
real courtesy; that is, one should have a genuine 
respect for a child's feelings and person. 



SUGGESTIONS ON MANAGEMENT 3 

17. Do not censure trifling errors severely. If so, 
you cannot emphasize serious faults. 

18. Scolding the school is a bad habit to fall into. 
Avoid censuring a child in the class and before the 
school. In general reprove privately and make the 
reproof effective. 

19. Do not worry over little noises and disturbances, 
if the children are working heartily. 

20. Use your eyes, see what is going on in the room, 
but overlook many trivial things. 

21. Have pupils pass through the halls quietly, 
promptly, and in line. Execute room movements 
promptly and economically. 

22. Competing with children in smartness is not 
worthy of a teacher. 

23. Do not punish the whole class for the fault of 
one or two. 

24. Children should not be boisterous in the school 
house. Outdoors is the place for rougher sports. 

25. Corporal punishment is only for extreme cases, 
a last resort. 

26. In deaHng with parents use patience and cour- 
tesy ; show them fully and fairly both sides of the 
question in dispute. Be fair and reasonable. 

27. Management requires thoughtful dehberation, 
prompt executive energy, and judicial fairness. 
These three superior qualities are not easily combined 
in one person. Each teacher must school himself 



4 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

into a complex habit which unites these contrasted 
qualities into a working unity. 

28. The skillful management of children is a social 
art based (i) upon insight into one's own feelings 
and volitional attitudes, and (2) upon the individual 
and social impulses that reveal themselves in the life 
and actions of children. In other words, one must 
understand himself and appreciate children. 

29. Government necessarily means control, and 
more or less conflict of wills. How to adjust the will 
of the teacher to the will of the child and to the com- 
bined social will of the school is the ticklish problem. 
It demands a well-balanced combination of the three 
virtues above mentioned. 

30. Give the children full credit for having wills 
that deserve to be wisely guided, and turned into 
proper channels of habit until freedom of self-control, 
based upon knowledge of what is right and fitting 
in conduct, is developed. 

31. The spirit of good will and cooperation, and the 
deliberate purpose to practice even-handed justice, 
furnish the moral basis for school government. 

2. Class Control combined with Room Control 

I. Before beginning the recitation provide the 
study class with plenty of work to do and make the 
conditions orderly and favorable to its execution. 



SUGGESTIONS ON MANAGEMENT 5 

2. Let the study class work according to a program 
posted on the blackboard, and showing the plan 
for each day in the week. The study class should 
not be noisy and intrusive but quiet and self-directive. 

3. Let the teacher take a good position before the 
class reciting and not too near the pupils. 

4. Keep the class together and closely attentive 
to the teacher's presentation of a topic, to black- 
board demonstrations, and to discussions and repro- 
ductions by the pupils. Unity of class spirit in a com- 
bined effort is the ideal class status. 

5. In concert work by the whole class, in oral drills 
and tests, make the class effort quick and energetic. 
Alternate individual and concert drills. 

6. Shift the work back and forth between the slow 
pupils and the quick ones. Do not wait too long 
for the slower pupils and give the brighter pupils 
a good share of attention. Poorer pupils may need 
a second and a third chance. 

7. With a class at the blackboard, watch all the 
pupils and keep them busy, correcting errors with 
speed, preventing copying, and holding to a standard 
of neatness and good form. 

8. Keep up the class spirit, but do not lose sight of 
individuals. This requires alertness and quick transi- 
tions from the whole class to individuals and vice versa. 

9. Get a proper distribution of work among the mem- 
bers of the class so that none are neglected or left idle. 



6 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

10. Have extra work in readiness for brighter pupils 
while the slower ones are receiving special help. Extra 
reference work, special problems, etc., should be pro- 
vided beforehand. 

1 1 . Children should be held to a firm standing posi- 
tion while reciting. In questions and class discus- 
sions avoid hand shaking and other excessive demon- 
strations. Self-control and moderation in pupils' 
behavior are the standard. 

12. Let pupils speak out in full tones so as to be 
clearly heard. Use such devices and such ingenuity 
as may be necessary to encourage timid pupils to 
speak clearly and confidently. 

13. Encourage children to watch each other sharply 
for errors or omissions, but without unkind and trifling 
criticism. A helpful, rather than critical spirit should 
be encouraged. 

14. The more forward children are to be held in 
check, and the modest, retiring ones encouraged and 
called into action. 

15. Save time by quick class movements and well- 
planned, orderly arrangement of children at the 
blackboard. 

3. Orderliness in School Housekeeping 

I. Care and thought fulness should be given to 
the heating and ventilating of the room. Proper 



SUGGESTIONS ON MANAGEMENT 7 

use of windows, doors, and transoms, without exposing 
children to drafts. Attention to the thermometer 
and to janitor service require cooperation. 

2. During physical exercises and at recess especial 
additional fresh-air ventilation may be provided for. 

3. The lighting from the windows should be regu- 
lated and modified by shades, according to the condi- 
tions of the weather, sunshine, morning and after- 
noon sun, and effects upon blackboards. 

4. A carefully devised program for the day and 
week should be placed where it can be easily seen by 
all and should be followed, in the main, so as to estab- 
Ksh habits of study and diligent attention to school 
duties. A reliable clock will aid materially in such a 
plan. 

5. The desks and tables throughout the room 
should be kept in neat and orderly condition. Waste 
papers and rubbish should be collected by passing 
the waste basket. 

6. Reference and library books may be conven- 
iently placed for use by the children and left in their 
proper place and position after use. The children 
may well be trained to this sort of order and neatness. 

7. A plan for the definite uses, care, and cleaning 
of the blackboards needs to be worked out. One 
part maybe required for the daily and weekly program. 
Other parts should be used regularly for the assign- 
ment of seat or home lessons. Still another may be 



8 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

used for class demonstrations, especially by the 
teacher in Arithmetic, Geography, History, etc. 
Other parts of the blackboard may be reserved for 
the uses of children who are sent to the board for prob- 
lems, map drawing, composition, etc. Unused work 
should be erased and the boards kept clear. 

8. The maps, globes, charts, pictures, and object 
material used for demonstration purposes should be 
kept in orderly fashion in suitable receptacles and 
used according to well-devised plans. Paper, pencils, 
ink, and drawing utensils require a like carefulness and 
orderliness. Materials and tools for construction, 
book binding and sewing, or weaving and shop work 
require systematic, businesslike disposal and regu- 
lation. Orderliness and system in all these details 
are indispensable. There should be adequate places 
of storage and time-saving devices for distributing 
and collecting tools and materials. 

9. The movements of children by classes and as 
individuals about the schoolroom should be quick, 
orderly, and time-saving. It is a pleasure to see the 
speed and quiet with which these movements are 
made in a well-ordered school. 

10. The element of decoration is now entering as 
a dominant note in the schoolroom environment. 
Plants and flowers, pictures and statuary, are prevail- 
ing influences, and teachers are giving their attention 
to the proper placing and harmony of these decorative 



SUGGESTIONS ON MANAGEMENT 9 

elements. The tinting of walls, the superior wood 
finishes, the use of the childrens' drawings and paper 
work add much to these pleasing schoolroom effects. 
When we add to this good music, folksongs and dances, 
and dramatization we have a very important group 
of aesthetic and culture elements that is making its 
influence strongly felt. 

11. School property, books, furniture, equipment, 
and buildings, also grounds, trees, and shrubbery, 
deserve to be scrupulously respected and cherished. 
The old-fashioned carving of desks and marring of 
buildings, the defacing of walls, and other vandalisms 
are rapidly becoming obsolete. The social and aes- 
thetic spirit are becoming dominant and such lawless 
acts are felt to be inappropriate. 

12. Cleanliness in rooms, toilets, halls, and base- 
ment, the avoidance of dust on floors, blackboards, 
and furniture, neatness and cleanness in the person 
and dress of children are very essential elements in 
the right sanitation of schoolrooms. 

13. First-class sanitary conditions as provided for 
by the thoughtful attention of teachers, and reen- 
forced by the trained nurse and medical inspection, 
provision in all ways against contagious and infectious 
diseases, — these are not luxuries but absolute essen- 
tials for the care and protection of children and for 
the happiness and welfare of the homes represented. 



CHAPTER II 

TEACHERS 

I. Superintendents, Supervisors, and Critics 

1. Superintendents and supervisors represent the 
larger experience, the matured judgment, the com- 
bination of comprehensive theory with daily practice, 
which are needed to guide and encourage the less ex- 
perienced in their difficult work. 

2. The function of critics and of superintendents 
who closely supervise young teachers is that of giving 
them advice and direction so that they will make as 
few mistakes as possible and waste the least amount 
of time in finding their way into skilled habits of 
teaching. Working under the direction of a wise and 
skillful critic, the beginning teacher should gain rap- 
idly in ability to manage and teach a school and should 
be saved from years of more or less wasted and mis- 
directed effort. Young teachers should not be al- 
lowed to form habits which, at a later time, will have 
to be laboriously corrected. 

3. The superintendent is the connecting Knk be- 
tween the different teachers and grades. He repre- 



TEACHERS II 

sents the larger, continuous aims of the school, and 
the principle of continuity in growth and organiza- 
tion. The underlying principles of the course of study 
and the broader aims of education are in his mind, and 
he seeks to bring all of his teachers into cooperation 
for these common ends. 

4. To keep himself in touch with the actual diffi- 
culties of teachers, it were well for the superintendent 
to do some real teaching, not in the form of occasional 
interruptions of teachers in their class work, but in 
the handHng of classes in complete recitations, in which 
the preparation and assignment of lessons are included 
and the topics are fully worked out. If the clerical 
and administrative duties of superintendents and prin- 
cipals can be diminished so as to leave time for some 
teaching, it will be of practical service to all con- 
cerned. 

5. The critic should first of all encourage and stim- 
ulate the young teachers, exercising at the same time 
a frank criticism of faults and errors. In combin- 
ing encouragement with criticism the critic is a 
reconciler of contradictions. Criticism should not 
usually leave the sting of discouragement. 

6. The critic or supervisor has the difficult task of 
exercising a dominating influence over the school 
and over the younger teachers, while keeping herself 
in the background. The critic and the beginner 
must get into such close relationship that the younger 



12 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

teacher embodies the spirit and energy of the critic 
without feehng cramped or overruled in her actions. 
In other words, young teachers should maintain their 
freedom and independence while under the helpful 
guidance of the critic. 

7. To perform this task the critic should be acces- 
sible and companionable, and clearly wise and practi- 
cal in her advice and suggestions. She must know 
how to encourage and to throw responsibihty upon 
others. 

8. The supervisor or critic is the exponent of the 
two opposite poles of education, strong ideals and 
practical skill in execution. 

9. The critic should be fertile in ways and means of 
illustrating to young teachers the better modes of 
procedure, and likewise in showing up the weaknesses 
of faulty methods. 

10. Critic teachers should follow a systematic plan 
of doing some daily regular teaching as a means of 
guidance and illustration to younger teachers. 

11. Illustrative lessons, taught in the presence of 
a number of older and younger teachers and then freely 
discussed, are a source of strength, because they 
greatly emphasize main features of instruction and 
give a broader interpretation to principles. 

12. In the variety and complexity of teaching 
processes, young teachers are slow to discriminate 
between important and unimportant ideas and 



TEACHERS 13 

methods. The observation, discussion, and criticism 
of lessons should steadily open their eyes to these 
essentials. 

13. Every supervisor and critic should make a 
business each term of working out elaborately, one or 
more of the larger topics or units of study which hold 
an important place in some school subject. This is 
a piece of original work that calls for a recombination 
of the principles of organization as appHed to a rich 
body of knowledge. 

14. The majority of teachers in the United States 
have had little if any professional preparation. They 
are in the process of growth from crude into rational 
methods. The responsibility of superintendents and 
supervisors for the steady growth and improvement 
of teachers in their work is correspondingly great. 

2. General Character and Qualifications of a Teacher 

1. Teachers should cultivate a Hberal, magnani- 
mous mental attitude in contrast to Httleness, narrow- 
ness, and pedantry. 

2. They should be well-balanced, steady and judi- 
cious in temper, not given to excess or partisanship, 
not moody and freakish or violent in temper. Self- 
control, resulting in moderation and reasonableness, 
expresses the spirit of a teacher and leader. 

3. Manifest cheerfulness and heartiness of manner 



14 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

in dealing with young people predispose them in one's 
favor. 

4. A many-sided, intelligent sympathy with all 
sorts of young people, the ability to put yourself in 
another's place and appreciate his situation and 
feelings is an important asset. This implies breadth 
and catholicity of mind, a friendly and helpful attitude 
toward others, and an appreciation of varieties of 
talent, disposition, and personal character. 

5. Truth, sincerity, and frankness in one's conduct 
and deahngs with young people are at a high premium. 

6. A teacher who is prepared for his work is earnest 
and energetic. He feels a serious responsibility and 
has aims and standards in view that require strenuous 
and continuous effort. 

7. On the basis of experience and matured convic- 
tion, he is prompt, decisive, and steadily progressive 
in his efforts. 

8. He is clear-headed in his plans and scholarly 
in thought and speech. 

9. His standards of thoroughness and mastery 
in school studies have been thought out in proper 
adjustment to the age and capacity of children. 

10. A pronounced flexibility of temper, and a quick 
versatiHty in shifting one's point of view to meet new 
conditions and different personalities are a necessity 
for teachers. 

11. Ingenuity in planning new methods of study 



TEACHERS 15 

and resourcefulness in the details of discipline and 
instruction should be constantly cultivated. 

12. Teachers can afford to lay their plans to be 
physically fresh and vigorous so as to meet school 
duties in good temper and with a strong healthy tone. 

13. In dress and manner care should be exercised 
to be neat, tasteful, and attractive. Good manners 
and suitable dress and care as to one's person are 
an important expression of respect for one's calling 
and for the children. 

14. A teacher will hold his own better in all respects 
if he is well posted in matters of general information. 
Such knowledge commands respect and shows a 
broader adjustment to life experience as a whole. 
In general lessons before the school a teacher may do 
much for young people to open their eyes to many 
important problems in the larger life out of school, 
which they will soon have to meet. These are things, 
too, which children are anxious to know about. 

15. In his whole character and attitude, in school 
and out, a teacher should be exemplary without affec- 
tation. That is, he is a plain and definite example 
of right things, one who illustrates in conduct what he 
attempts to realize in the children. 

16. On account of the increasingly social character 
of the school, social temper and adroitness on the 
teacher's part have become one of his essential 
qualifications. The interpretation and guidance of 



1 6 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

social spirit in school groupings and combinations 
among the young become one of the teacher's chief 
functions. 

17. A ready social adjustment and freedom of con- 
tact with the homes, with business and church and 
social activities, representing broader Ufe and inter- 
ests of the community, are essential qualities in the 
teacher's make-up. 

18. Teachers are entitled to a feeling of pride in the 
exercise of their professional skill and efficiency. One 
who is a distinct expert in the management and in- 
struction of the young, deserves a professional stand- 
ing based upon the highest merit. Teachers them- 
selves should prize such skill as a high distinction and 
work to attain it as their most distinctive and worthy 
achievement. 

19. Besides the broad liberal qualifications that 
belong to the teacher by virtue of his leadership in 
guiding children into those general forms of knowledge 
and culture common and essential to all, he requires 
special and pecuHar mental quaHties in the particular 
subjects of study, as imagination and humor in Htera- 
ture, logical precision in arithmetic, motor skill in 
manual arts, etc. 

20. The teacher is a liberal-conservative who com- 
bines widely variant aims and superiorities in one 
person. He is a practical utilitarian and a hopeful 
ideaUst. 



TEACHERS 17 

21. A wise teacher is liberal-minded and helpful 
toward his co-workers, and not given to criticism 
and complaints against his associates. Criticising 
the work done by a previous teacher is not in good 
taste. Complaining to others that a class is dull or 
stupid shows lack of sympathy. 

22. The teacher represents a very wide range of 
interests in knowledge, whether in nature or in hu- 
man and social affairs. These elementary subjects 
broaden out more and more into the limitless fields 
of knowledge. The teacher also looks ahead and fore- 
casts the child's future work, his possible vocational 
fitness. It is the business of the teacher in all his 
activities to be scholarly, progressive, versatile, with 
many-sided interests for the present and the future. 

3. Difficulties and Faults of Inexperienced Teachers 

1. There is not a sufficient breadth of attention 
to cover the wide range of things requiring simulta- 
neous notice. The teacher learns gradually to manage 
several things at the same time. Teaching requires 
the formation of a complex habit of attention with 
alertness and quick adjustment to many things. The 
young teacher is called upon to meet this exigency 
by wise planning and forethought and by much after- 
thought and reflection upon his previous actions. 

2. In matters of discipline there is a lack of that 



l8 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

quiet decision and promptness in action that command 
the respect and confidence of children. On the one 
side there may be overanxiety and indecision, on the 
other side, haste and severity of treatment. Young 
teachers are Hkely to make the mistake of being too 
stiff and arbitrary or too easy and indulgent. 

3. In meeting emergencies in discipHne young 
teachers often issue their orders hastily or without 
reflection and make threats against violations. Hasty 
orders and threats are dangerous. The teacher may 
easily forget to execute them or he may not wish to 
execute them when the time comes. Oftentimes a 
threat is a failure to do what ought to be done now. 
It is better to meet emergencies as they arise. 

4. The keenest need felt by young teachers, who 
are not at first strong in discipline, is some means of 
establishing their authority, some immediate devices 
of control for quelling incipient disorder. Prompt, 
decisive action is required to check the beginnings of 
disorder. By reflection and ingenuity young teachers 
must think out those modes of action by which they 
may reenforce their personality at the moment of trial. 
Curiously, many Httle noises and disturbances can be 
overlooked. The teacher must have a blind eye to 
many such triviaHties and a quick perception for those 
cases where the question of order is really at stake. 

5. Young teachers are naturally deficient in the 
power to organize new subject matter, especially in 



TEACHERS 19 

complex topics which are treated orally, without 
a textbook. This weakness appears first in project- 
ing the main outline of leading points and second in 
the effort to adhere to such an outUne in presenting 
and discussing the subject matter. This is due to a 
failure to observe a logical or causal sequence in the 
topics, and again in the inability to discriminate 
between important and unimportant ideas and facts. 

6. Young teachers are especially defective in seeing 
clearly the fundamental lines of thought that run 
through a whole study. In arithmetic or language 
certain principles run through the course in the 
grades. Somehow the textbooks fail to bring out 
this connectedness and continuity of thought and the 
responsibihty Hes mainly upon the teacher. Mature 
and careful teachers discover this underlying unity 
and make it the basis of their best thought work 
for children. 

7. Young teachers are accustomed to run too 
rapidly over the main topics in a textbook. In 
arithmetic, for example, they fail to realize how much 
drill, what variety of oral problems in appHcations of 
all sorts, is necessary to master percentage and other 
topics. 

8. In the classroom young teachers often fail to 
keep up steady class attention. They become inter- 
ested in individuals and lose sight of and control of 
the class. They have not yet learned to strike first 



20 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

for strong class attention and incidentally keep an 
eye on individuals who require occasional attention. 
Teachers should cultivate a double form of attention. 
9. In oral work and in the discussion of topics, 
beginning teachers drift too much into a develop- 
ment method. They are afraid of telling the children 
a few necessary things. They overdo the principle 
of allowing children to think things out for themselves. 

10. On the other hand, teachers help children too 
much by asking them too many easy questions. Thus 
arises loose and inconsequent discussion and much 
loss of time. This brings out the fact that teachers 
are not skillful in withholding help when it is not 
needed and in giving it in cases of real need. One 
should, as it were, see into a child's mind and deter- 
mine wisely whether he needs to be thrown back upon 
his own resources or is in deep water and requires 
help. 

11. Young teachers often fail to make important 
ideas in the lesson definite and clear to pupils' under- 
standing. At the end of the recitation not much 
real progress has been made in the clarification of 
ideas. The class may be seemingly attentive and the 
work progressive, but there is a sort of haze in the 
intellectual atmosphere. Things are not sharply 
defined. 

12. Often there is more or less of interesting talk 
and discussion, but the children fail to sum up the 



TEACHERS 21 

matter and give a clear and adequate statement 
of results. In most lessons teachers should see to 
it that the important ideas and facts are well cHnched. 

13. Young teachers often lack in clearness and 
simplicity of speech. As quickly as possible they 
should adjust themselves to the needs of children. 
Some young teachers, taking their cue from their 
elders, talk too much. 

14. In assigning lessons, it is easy to give too much, 
and careful judgment is required. Often the assign- 
ment is indefinite and ambiguous. A class will soon 
go to pieces on poor assignments. Reference work 
should be precise, noting chapter and pages. 

15. At first teachers are naturally deficient in re- 
sourcefulness with respect to illustrative materials 
and devices. Steady improvement in the ability 
to illustrate and concrete ideas is a professional obli- 
gation upon every teacher. 

4. Growth of Teachers 

Teachers, while engaged in their professional duties, 
have unusual opportunity for growth. In fact, one 
can hardly be a good teacher without constantly 
improving and expanding one's mental resources. 
Some of the ways in which a progressive and spirited 
teacher may grow in culture and professional resources 
are pointed out as follows : 



22 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

1. A few important professional books should find 
their way, not simply into the teacher's library, but 
also into his more serious thought, having been care- 
fully read and digested. A few of the interesting and 
vital books may be mentioned as follows: Herbert 
Spencer's "Education," James' ''Talks to Teachers," 
Rousseau's ''Emile," De Guimp's ''Life of Pestalozzi," 
Quick's "Educational Reformers," Locke's "Thoughts 
on Education," Monroe's "History of Education," 
Pestalozzi's "Leonard and Gertrude," Kirkpatrick's 
"Fundamentals of Child Study." 

2. Summer sessions at the Normal Schools and 
Universities offer not only stimulating and practical 
courses in pedagogical subjects, but also full courses in 
literature, history, natural science, language, mathe- 
matics, and all the academic subjects. 

3. If a teacher wishes to specialize in some chosen 
field of study, as in history or science, the summer 
schools, libraries, and laboratories are at his disposal, 
and, without giving up the regular work of instruction, 
many teachers are pursuing advance courses and fit- 
ting themselves for higher specialized forms of teach- 
ing. 

4. The long summer vacations are also used for 
travel in this country and Europe. The experiences 
and broader outlook upon the world suppUed by travel 
are among the important agencies for the better equip- 
ment of teachers, especially in common school work. 



TEACHERS 23 

5. A knowledge of local affairs, of the details of 
town and municipal problems, of current events in 
the larger world of business, politics, and social reform 
is a desirable outfit for teachers. A familiarity with 
history, economics, and sociology of the practical sort, 
which enables one to discuss current events with 
children, is a very important equipment for the teacher. 
The general exercises in which such matters are dis- 
cussed are a valuable means of opening the minds of 
children to many worldly and useful matters not dealt 
with in school studies. 

6. In addition to the general carefulness and effi- 
ciency of his work, each teacher should be engaged 
in some special field of instruction, in which he is 
elaborating from time to time, complete and more 
fully organized topics, as demonstrations of matured 
and even artistic teaching. One cannot do this in 
all subjects at the same time, nor in several topics at 
once. But picking out some important unit of study, 
in a favorite subject, the teacher should collect and 
organize a superior body of knowledge, commit it to 
writing, and execute the plan in full in the class- 
room. 

This is a kind of specialization in which every 
teacher can engage with the highest profit. The 
ability to do this kind of work in one study is likely 
to spread its influence to others. 

7. Some teachers prefer departmental teaching in 



24 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

one or two subjects. This requires special richness 
and mastery of knowledge in those subjects, and has 
the advantage of creating greater interest in both 
teachers and classes. Preparation for this quality of 
work can be made at the advanced schools, or by 
the special elaboration of topics as suggested above. 

8. For the general body of teachers the most sig- 
nificant line of advance is found in extending one's 
acquaintance with school studies beyond the text- 
books into the more Kvely and interesting material 
found in good Hterature, in history, science, and 
geography. The textbooks offer but a meager diet 
either for teachers or children. Just beyond these 
textbook outlines and condensations is a remarkably 
fruitful range of studies in special books and periodicals, 
geographical magazines, biography and travel, which 
furnish all that is desirable as a reenforcement for 
genuine instruction. Such books are abundant and 
are being rapidly supplied in the main studies. 

9. In this country, where many teachers undertake 
their work without adequate preparation, it is es- 
pecially desirable that they should utiHze these 
various means for professional improvement and 
advance. 



CHAPTER III 

CHILDREN 
I. Child Study 

I . Reasons why teachers should make some special 
effort to understand children : 

a. Children are distinctly and radically different 
from grown people. 

h. Most of us as adults are a Httle out of sympathy 
with children and are disposed to set up the same stand- 
ards for them as for adults. 

c. The formaHty of school discipline and instruc- 
tion keeps us at a distance from children and prevents 
us often from understanding them. 

d. Because of misjudging children we make mis- 
takes in managing and instructing them. 

e. Children show their individual traits in a great 
variety of ways, and we must cultivate the power of 
insight and of interpretation of their actions. 

/. More than anything else we need to understand 
children, not only in their normal intellectual activities, 
but in their bodily states and defects, their feelings, 
impulses, and interests at different stages of growth. 

25 



26 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

2. ''To study the outer and inner factors of human 
development, and to determine how the inner factors 
are modified by the outer, is the work of child study." 
(Kirkpatrick.) 

3. Some children in a school are deserving of in- 
dividual study, i.e. of closer observation and of de- 
liberate effort to understand, and rightly interpret 
them. There are indeed special and pecuHar cases, 
even incorrigibles. Some of these ought to be iso- 
lated from the school and receive special attention 
from those who have time for it. 

4. The natural groupings of children according to 
social instinct also deserve study : the ways in which 
they influence one another, their modes of cooperation, 
and their antagonisms. 

5. The natural leaders in a school are to be noted 
and their influence gained and guided by the teacher. 

6. The physical defects and diseases of children 
have become an important object of study, with the 
purpose of improving health and sanitary conditions 
in the school. Teachers and parents alike have over- 
looked ailments of throat and nose, and defects of 
seeing and hearing; but now a closer and more effi- 
cient inspection of these troubles is demanded in 
which teachers and nurses or medical experts coop- 
erate. 

7. Children express themselves far more freely 
out of doors and at play than under the constraints 



CHILDREN 27 

of the school. The playground offers a favorable 
opportunity for discovering children's dispositions and 
peculiarities. Even the games and rhythmic actions 
of the schoolroom open children's minds and feelings 
so that we can look in. Outdoor excursions are also 
a means of closer companionship and acquaintance. 

8. When children become really interested in their 
school studies, and when they are allowed initiative 
and responsibility for doing things, their real charac- 
ter comes out for inspection. 

9. Teachers should observe the instinctive inter- 
ests of children as they spring up, grow strong, and in 
turn give way to those later arising. These interests 
may be drawn into close relation to some of the school 
studies. 

10. What are called children's books, especially 
those that really appeal to them, are deserving of 
study as a means of child interpretation. A good 
story is a revelation of the child's self, and its effect 
can be seen. The reading and reproduction of suit- 
able stories and poems with children give an excellent 
phase of child study. 

1 1 . Respect for the rights and privileges of children 
is a first duty of teachers. Many children are very 
sensitive to any discourtesy or injustice on the part of 
their elders. 

12. A few of the helpful books on child study may 
be noted as follows : ''Fundamentals of Child Study," 



28 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

Kirkpatrick; "Children's Rights," Wiggin; "The 
Development of the Child," Oppenheim; "Diary 
of a Western Schoolmaster," Stableton ; "Being a 
Boy," Warner; "Story of a Bad Boy," Aldrich. 

2. Common Faults of Children 

The faults mentioned below may be partly due to 
the school, partly to the home, and partly to other 
influences. 

1. There is a lack of strong power of attention or 
concentration of effort in study and in classroom 
work. The influence of the school should be to cul- 
tivate and strengthen this power. Our common school 
standards in this respect should be put at a higher 
mark. A flitting attention and vagrancy of thought 
are too much permitted in classrooms. 

2. A deficiency of independent thinking and self- 
reliant effort is seen on the part of older children. 
The school should be constantly setting up problems 
which call out self-activity and self-rehance. 

3. In the schoolroom children often talk in low 
and indistinct tones. A habit of timidity and lack 
of confidence is developed which interferes with good 
classroom work. 

4. Very commonly children fail to express thought 
in complete sentences, and in connected discourse. 
They answer and recite too much in fragments and 



CHILDREN 29 

broken sentences. The ability to express thought 
in a series of connected statements in a whole para- 
graph or topic requires steady cultivation. The habit 
of using faulty English and slang is so common that 
the school is obliged to set up a good standard of 
speech. 

5. Children easily form the habit of raising the 
hand and shaking it violently in class work. It is a 
disturbing habit, discourteous to the one reciting and 
tending to undue nervous excitement of the class as 
a whole. Quiet manners and self-control are more 
conducive to good thinking and reciting. 

6. Children stand in a lounging position at their 
seats and desks while reciting. Such an attitude is 
disorderly, careless, and lowers the tone of the class 
recitation. 

7. During study periods children sit in careless 
and lounging positions, and show by their bodily 
attitude a relaxed mental state. 

8. In the regular written work of the schools, 
children hand in papers that are torn, careless, and 
poorly written . B oy s especially are negHgent and pro- 
duce unsightly papers. Teachers should hold to 
standards of neatness and correctness. 

9. In some classes children talk out too freely 
when not called upon, showing a boldness bordering 
on insubordination. Let them express themselves 
when called upon, and with self-control and courtesy. 



30 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

10. Some children are careless and slovenly in per- 
sonal habits. For their own sake and for the sake of 
the other children, they should be required to be clean 
and neat. 

11. Carelessness in scattering waste papers and 
scraps, and a disorderly condition in the desks, easily 
develop in schools. Deslcs should be kept in orderly 
form and the waste basket passed regularly. 

12. Children, even from good famihes, sometimes 
become sly and tricky in Httle disorders, disturbing 
the discipline and social welfare of the school. Prompt 
and decisive measures are required to estabHsh respect 
and authority. 

13. Children studying together from the same book 
usually do more visiting than studying, and create 
disturbance. It is a concession that lowers the stand- 
ard of efficient work. 

14. Some children practice rude and unsocial ac- 
tions on the playground. The plays and recesses of 
the children require watchful supervision. 

3. Social Combinations among Children, Beneficial 
and Hurtful 

The natural social spirit among young folks prompts 
them to combine their forces and to cooperate in larger 
and smaller groups for common ends. These social 
combinations are sometimes helpful in reenforcing 



CHILDREN 31 

the proper work of the school. In other cases they 
are antagonistic and damaging to its welfare. A 
wise teacher will learn to be shrewd in interpreting 
and directing the social tendencies and aims of young 
people. The social intelligence of teachers should 
be Hberal and sympathetic as a means of understand- 
ing their affinities and motives. 

The social spirit of young people manifests itself 
in some of its beneficial ways as follows : 

1. In music and singing. In fact, music is one of 
the best modes of inducting children into the higher 
phases of congenial thought and sentiment. 

2. The class discussion of interesting topics, espe- 
cially those having a social importance touching the 
welfare of many persons. Topics for general exercises 
should also reveal this elevating social value. 

3. Cooperation in working up and presenting 
plays and dramatic performances. Such exercises, 
well conducted, have a wide-reaching social and prac- 
tical value for all concerned. 

4. The folk dances and rhythm work of primary 
classes introduce children, in the happiest way, to 
social proprieties and right social spirit. 

5. The games of children, both within doors and 
out, may be directed so as to express the joy and love 
of action in children in cooperative ways. 

6. Gymnastic drills and group exercises. 

7. The marching to music in passing to and fro. 



32 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

8. Some of the economies of schoolroom organiza- 
tion are best provided for by social helpfulness, as in 
the distribution or collection by the children of books, 
papers, pencils, paint boxes, scissors, and other mate- 
rials and tools. 

9. Spelling matches and other contests may be 
conducted so as to develop a lively and cordial 
spirit. 

10. The working out of group constructions 
and projects in the manual arts, and in school- 
room decoration, in making furniture for school 
uses, etc. 

11. In societies and debating clubs properly con- 
ducted, this cooperative spirit can be encouraged, 
and the social leaders brought out. 

12. Outdoor excursions and nature study trips are 
socially important. 

Some of the hurtful tendencies along social lines 
may be designated as follows : 

1. Connivance in various forms of mischief, as in 
note writing, whispering, disturbing noises with hands 
or feet, common obstinacy in not learning or reciting 
lessons, etc. 

2. Noisy and boisterous actions in class marching 
and movements. 

3. A disposition to conceal or cover up wrong 
actions and practices on the ground of not exposing 
one another. No tattling, etc. 



CHILDREN 33 

4. Disturbing and more or less noisy demonstra- 
tions in the class ; pertness in talking out and interrupt- 
ing teacher and class. 

5. A spirit of sullenness or resentment exhibited 
by a whole class because of some mistake or fault of 
the teacher. 

6. The formation of cliques and of small social 
groups of a narrow or exclusive sort, clannish among 
themselves and unfriendly toward others. 

7. The formation of groups in which a covert or 
secret antagonism toward the teacher is developed. 

8. Excessive rivalry for prizes, high standing in 
classes, or distinctions, produces unsocial and hostile 
feelings. 

9. In certain groups, in and out of the school, 
complaining gossips bring on antagonism against 
the teacher. 

The strong leadership of individuals in these various 
forms of grouping, and the social response of the mem- 
bers under such leadership, deserve the teacher's 
thoughtful and unprejudiced study. 

The combining or cooperating spirit is strong in 
children. The teacher's business is not to suppress 
it, but to give it direction, to bring it into such forms 
as reenforce the true life and activity of the school 
as a social organization. The proper sociaHzing of 
children through the various cooperative agencies 
of the school, by setting up social ideals and by encour- 



34 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

aging appropriate conduct, is one of the highest func- 
tions of the school. 

The social groupings and tendencies of children and 
youth have become more recently an important object 
of study for educators. For the best uses in teaching 
the study of sociology is rapidly developing into an 
importance quite equal to that of psychology. 



CHAPTER IV 

CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 

I. The Planning of Lessons for Classroom Work 

1. The planning of lessons should be based first 
of all upon the larger topic or whole which is being 
treated in a series of lessons. The lesson for a single 
day is usually but a fragment of this large topic. 
For example, the process of adding fractions is such a 
topic. A poem like ''The Barefoot Boy/' or a story 
like "The Great Stone Face," is such a complete topic 
involving a series of lessons. In history or geography 
one of the larger topics, like ''Burgoyne's Invasion," 
or "The Rhine River," or the "Sahara Desert," may 
require a dozen lessons for a proper treatment. 

2. In planning lessons the basal idea in one of these 
large topics should be grasped as the organizing prin- 
ciple which determines the sequence of main headings. 
To explain and clear up this idea, to show its im- 
portance and value in the world, is the purpose of the 
series of lessons. In the growth of this idea is found 
the logical continuity of the whole topical treat- 
ment. 

35 



36 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

3. This topic should be thought of and worked 
out as a complete whole, without regard at first to 
the individual lessons and with complete mastery 
of the whole before the first lesson is taught. In fact, 
we cannot estimate accurately, at first, how many 
lessons will be required to complete the topic. As 
in the building of a house, the architect's plan is com- 
plete before the first day's work is begun. 

4. In addition to this, young teachers should work 
out elaborately the individual lesson a day ahead, 
going into fuller details as to plan, method, and mate- 
rial. With growing experience and skill, this de- 
tailed planning can be much reduced. It is tedious 
and unnecessary to work out exact lesson plans several 
days ahead. 

5. A strong logical or causal sequence, expressed in 
the form of a series of main headings, must be thought 
out as the framework for the whole topic. In doing 
this, one should learn to discriminate sharply between 
big central points and the subordinate facts or details 
which are grouped around them. One cannot make 
such plans without full and rich knowledge, nor with- 
out carefully weighing out and estimating relative 
values. The teacher is under the necessity of being 
a scholar and an organizing thinker. 

6. A difficult question to settle is, how much of 
concrete data (illustrative or descriptive, facts or 
objects, pictures, maps and diagrams) is required to 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 37 

bring out clearly the main organizing idea in the topic ? 
In important topics a very rich background of illus- 
trative and concrete material is necessary, much 
greater, indeed, than our textbooks usually supply. 
The teacher may become an expert in selecting and 
grouping this concrete data around the central points. 

7. In getting the materials of such a large topic 
before children for their proper mastery and assimila- 
tion, the teacher must hold strongly to his well-planned 
outline. He will use skill in presentation, free discus- 
sion, question and answer, as important means for 
realizing the matured plan of organization. 

8. On the basis of this plan the children will be 
held to a reasonably complete oral or written repro- 
duction of the main substance of thought. Such 
reproductions and the free use of blackboard sketch- 
ing or drawing, together with maps, pictures, and other 
modes of concrete illustration, are chiefly valuable as 
means for clarifying and emphasizing the simple basal 
outHne of topics. 

9. To work out a well-organized plan for the treat- 
ment of a topic requires studious, thoughtful, scholarly 
mental effort ; to hold firmly to this outline through 
the shifting vicissitudes of lively class instruction and 
discussion is a far more difficult task. 

10. In the full planning and treatment of such large 
topics, one danger is that of spreading out too much 
into interesting, multitudinous details. Excellent 



38 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

teachers are tempted by the richness of the thought 
materials to overelaborate the topics and to run off 
on side issues. The main difficulty is that of keeping 
up a proper balance between the illustrative facts and 
details and the important central ideas. 

11. In the oral presentation and discussion of these 
large topics each important heading often requires 
the solution of a problem, the thoughtful weighing 
of facts to reach some important result, i.e. independ- 
ent thinking and reasoning. In many of these large 
topics we have simply a series of interesting and 
thought-provoking problems to solve, e.g. in his- 
tory, geography, and science. 

12. The fundamental idea involved in the develop- 
ment of one of these large topics needs to be released 
from the narrow local surroundings in which it is first 
clearly discovered and its applicability to a far wider 
field of experience shown. By comparisons on a wider 
scale, this larger, more nearly universal, meaning and 
value of the idea is gradually brought to light. 

13. To institute and carry forward a series of com- 
parisons by which a local concept expands into a na- 
tional or even world idea, points out the second stage 
in the handUng of a large topic. This step of com- 
parison, with the inferences and enlargement of 
thought involved, opens up great possibilities to in- 
struction. Teachers have been slow to seize this ad- 
vantage and to develop this phase of progressive, 
self-reliant thinking. 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 39 

14. The final step in this extended thought move- 
ment is a present-day application of this idea to so- 
ciety, a problem in which this idea is trying to realize 
itself under present conditions. 

15. In working out the plan for individual daily 
lessons, on the basis of the larger plan of a whole 
topic, the special form of questions, the sort of illus- 
trative examples, the use of pictures, maps and dia- 
grams, board work, drills and reviews, the comparisons 
and applications can be worked out in detail. 

16. In closing the treatment of one of these large 
topics a decisive test, oral or written, of the children's 
knowledge and mastery of the subject should be made. 
The principal or supervisor may do this to the best 
advantage. Success depends upon the thoroughness 
with which the class as a whole has accomplished its 
tasks. 

17. These large topics constitute milestones in the 
children's progress in knowledge and thinking power. 
The careful planning or laying out of such topical cam- 
paigns of study and their classroom treatment involve 
the use of all the principles of classroom instruction. 

2. Exercises not Involved in the Larger Organized 
Topics of Study 

Much of the subject matter of school studies does 
not fall within the scope of the regular treatment of 



40 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

these large well-organized topics of study. Besides 
important exercises, reviews and drills, there are 
formal elements to be mastered and a few odds and 
ends of useful knowledge which lie apart and must 
not be overlooked. Among them are the following : 

1. The spelling of miscellaneous lists of words. 
Where rules of spelling can be worked out and appHed, 
rules should be developed, but much of our spelling 
is arbitrary and exceptional. 

2. The mastery of phonetic elements in primary 
reading as a means of more quickly acquiring the art 
of reading. This requires separate drills in the rec- 
ognition and use of forms. 

3. Special phonetic drill in intermediate and 
grammar grades is a side issue to reading. 

4. Learning the use of dictionaries, encyclopedias, 
and reference books is a special art. 

5. Important drills on miscellaneous names and 
places in geography, on facts and periods in history, 
should be provided. 

6. Varied and repeated problems for speed and 
mastery in mental arithmetic; especially practical 
miscellaneous problems. 

7. The quick sketching of maps in geography and 
history. Drills in latitude and longitude, etc. 

8. Exercises in writing and the mastery of the 
formal elements in composition. 

9. Dictation exercises in language work. 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 41 

10. Grammatical analysis of sentences, and dia- 
gramming. 

11. Physical exercises, games and gymnasial prac- 
tice. 

12. General exercises and current news. 

13. The study of idioms and the correction of com- 
mon errors in speech. 

14. Review tests and examinations in various 
studies. 

Even in the treatment of large well-organized topics 
of study, there is much danger of neglecting the re- 
views, drills, and tests on the facts and outlines. 
Teachers are prone to overlook the importance and 
even necessity of such exercises, and the children fail 
to fix the important facts and relations. We have 
made the frequent mistake of supposing that children 
will pick up these elements of knowledge incidentally 
without specific effort. Many things they do get 
indirectly, but thoroughness and mastery of knowledge 
are not gained by haphazard or careless methods. 

3. Oral Instruction and the Development Method 

I. The oral treatment of topics in contrast to the 
textbook method of study has come into general use, 
in the story-telHng of primary grades, in handhng 
geography, history, and nature study topics in inter- 
mediate grades, and even in treating important sub- 



42 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

jects in upper grades. In some cases the subject 
matter is presented in the story-telHng or lecture form 
by the teacher, in other cases a method of question 
and discussion, or development, is used. 

2. The first essential for good oral instruction is the 
complete and thorough organization of the subject 
matter in the teacher's mind. The basis for such 
organization is a close logical series of main points 
for the whole topic, around which the necessary facts 
and ideas are grouped. 

3. This organization of knowledge materials in an 
important topic, which includes not only the basal 
outline, but all the facts necessary to its proper elabo- 
ration, requires a high grade of constructive thinking. 
It presupposes not only a full knowledge of the sub- 
ject, but original power in selecting the central ideas 
in the argument, their arrangement into an orderly 
series, and the artistic grouping of the interesting 
details about these centers. 

4. It will not seem strange if many even experienced 
and capable teachers have not acquired much power 
in this difficult art of organization. Most of our 
teachers have been trained in textbook methods 
where the organization is given outright, and our 
schools have not been strong in working out plans for 
the original organization of new materials. 

5. In oral instruction, young teachers should cul- 
tivate, next, the power of clear and logical presenta- 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 43 

tion, on the basis of previous careful organization. 
Closely combined with this there should be marked 
sl^fciB^raphic illustration by the use of descriptive 
la^^^i*^ or board sketches, maps, pictures, and 
other modes of objectification. 

6. Experience has demonstrated that for young 
teachers it is quite difficult, in free oral instruction, to 
hold to this aforesaid outline of leading points. Severe 
discipHne and considerable experience are necessary 
before this logical habit is acquired by teachers. 

7. The second essential of good oral work is the 
satisfactory reproduction by the children of this pre- 
sented material. Without this proof of attentiveness 
and mastery of the subject by the pupils, oral in- 
struction falls to pieces and goes to waste. 

8. A far more difficult problem, and one not to be 
undertaken too rashly, is that of developing a complex 
topic by means of questions, answers, and free dis- 
cussion. This is the so-called " development process." 

9. In our oral lessons in schools, there has been a 
strong tendency toward development instruction. It 
is a process of evolving the new subject matter, by 
means of questions based upon previous knowledge 
and experience and by means of discussions, in which 
the children are led to infer many facts and conclu- 
sions. In such oral work, however, many of the new 
facts must necessarily be presented by the teacher. 

10. Development work, as commonly understood. 



44 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

is based largely upon the proposition that we should 
not tell a child anything which he is able to discover 
or think out for himself. Young teachers seem to 
be naturally disposed to adopt this development form 
of instruction and to hold back from giving direct 
information in development lessons. 

1 1 . Even a small amount of reflection will convince 
us that development instruction is an extremely com- 
plicated and difficult mode of teaching. It presup- 
poses an unusual mastery of the subject such as only 
experienced experts possess, a rare ability in asking 
questions, and an equally rare ability to guide free 
discussion along a predetermined logical line of 
thought. 

12. Often our young and inexperienced teachers 
are not skillful in using a development method of 
instruction. Even if their material is well organized, 
they are easily drawn away upon side issues. They 
have not developed the judgment to discriminate 
between important and unimportant. They waste 
much valuable time in quizzing children about minor 
points, wrong statements, and suggestions in dis- 
cussion that lead them astray. Development lessons 
easily degenerate into loose discussions, without reach- 
ing definite and tangible results. 

13. In development work the manner of question- 
ing should be subjected to close limitations. First, 
it should hold definitely and strongly to the main line 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 45 

of thought. Second, a few central questions, striking 
in upon the main argument, are better than a large 
number of detailed questions. Third, questions that 
aim to bring out a child's previous knowledge, for 
apperceptive uses, must be very clear and well-judged. 

14. In history, geography, and other studies treated 
orally, it is important to make sure that the essential 
facts are presented to children before calHng upon 
them to reflect or draw conclusions. Teachers often 
make the mistake of trying to develop by questions 
facts which ought to be furnished by the teacher or 
from a book. See to it first that the conditions of 
thought, the necessary facts, are present in children's 
minds, as a basis for reasoning. They may be drawn 
out of a child's experience in part. But they should 
not seldom be directly furnished by the instructor. 

15. Many teachers seem to have an antipathy 
against giving children any information by direct 
statement, but they show a strong preference for 
questions as a mode of prying secrets out of children. 

16. The questioning habit in teachers runs into 
serious faults that are easily noticed by an observer, 
as follows : (a) sl multiplicity of questions, where a 
few well-chosen, significant questions would be better ; 
(b) chasing down a child's mistakes with questions so 
that he will correct himself (often a great waste of 
time) ; (c) questioning children on side issues that 
arise in discussion (such questions carry one far 



46 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

afield and accomplish little) ; (d) questioning a child 
when he is muddled to see if he cannot extricate him- 
self (usually a vain hope and a great waste of time) ; 
(e) vague and unpremeditated questions which leave 
the children in doubt as to the teacher's meaning. 

17. As soon as the important facts bearing on a 
subtopic have been gained from the child or presented 
by the teacher or obtained from the book, apt ques- 
tions, to bring out the significance and grouping of 
these facts, their wider import, or their appHcation 
in the further development of the topic, are in place. 

18. In presenting problems in history or geography 
for children to solve by their own thinking, first state 
in full the introductory facts, the difficulties of the 
situation. Then raise a question as to the mode of 
solution. 

19. Teachers often enter upon a series of questions 
with too little preliminary reflection. To state good 
clear questions is a difficult art. To ask a series of 
pertinent questions leading to a logical development 
of a topic is an extremely difficult process of thinking, 
one acquired only by severe discipHne and training. 

20. Teachers should use a development method with 
considerable caution, and not depend upon it at first 
as the main feature of oral instruction. With en- 
larged experience and training, skill in asking develop- 
ment questions is gradually acquired. 

21. Skillful development instruction is one of the 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 47 

highest and most difficult arts in the teaching pro- 
fession. Those who would aspire to such worthy 
achievement should be willing to put themselves 
under discipline, first in the serious thought work of 
organization, and second in the various forms of skill 
required in lively oral work. 

4. Questioning 

Questioning is the most important instrument used 
by the teacher in classroom exercises. It has a great 
variety of uses, some of them very deHcate and dis- 
criminating. Teachers usually drop into the ques- 
tioning habit freely and unreservedly without much 
concern as to its difficulties or pitfalls, and without 
seeming to realize that good questioning is an uncom- 
monly difficult art. The style of questioning adopted 
by a teacher betrays at once the weak points or the 
strong points in his mental character. 

We will note first some of the more commonly rec- 
ognized characteristics of good questioning. 

1. Questions should spring from a deliberate and 
thoughtful attitude of mind, and they should produce 
in pupils a similar thoughtful and reflective mood. 
This applies to questions used to test knowledge, 
power to see relations and to solve problems. 

2. Good questions by the teacher spring out of a 
well-organized body of knowledge. Without per- 



U 



48 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

ceiving clearly the organizing centers of thought in 
his subject, the teacher is at a loss how to frame or 
where to apply his questions. Prudent and thought- 
ful questions strike in toward the main line of thought 
and touch the pivotal points in the series of topics. 
They are centripetal rather than centrifugal. It 
takes thought and practice to hit the mark with a 
question. 

3. A good question that strikes the center of a 
topic calls up a whole series or group of things, and 
before this question is answered, may require a re- 
combination of facts and data. Make one question 
go as far as possible. 

4. These pivotal questions will have to be thought 
out reflectively beforehand. It is not safe to depend 
upon the inspiration of the moment. 

5. In questioning one must learn to discriminate 
between the important and the trivial, between those 
things which contain the gist of the matter and those 
of small import. 

6. Questions must be clear, exphcit, and unam- 
biguous. This requires care, simplicity, and definite- 
ness in language. 

7. Successive questions should follow a logical line 
of argument and not scatter far into bypaths. 

Faulty questioning assumes a variety of forms : 
I. Asking too many questions. In the opinion of 
some thoughtful people, the usual free and promiscuous 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 49 

questions of teachers run far in excess of a proper 
standard. Teachers are said to ask many times as 
many questions as are needed. 

2. It is not an uncommon fault of teachers to help 
children too much by numerous detailed questions. 
The pupil, instead of reciting independently and con- 
nectedly upon some important topic, waits for the 
teacher's questions and is propped up and sup- 
ported at every step by the teacher's suggestive and 
overhelpful inquiries. 

3. Some of these careless questions suggest the an- 
swer, or by the tone of voice imply that the child's 
previous answer is wrong. 

4. Questions which set children to guessing are 
sometimes allowed to run from one to another in the 
class, without definite outcome. Various opinions 
are called for, and in the end the matter is left 
unsettled. 

5. Vague, indefinite, and general questions are all 
too common. They are so bungling and obscure that 
no rational answer could be given. Such questions 
are, in fact, enigmas or riddles upon which to waste 
time. 

6. In development instruction, questions are some- 
times asked to bring out facts that cannot be found in 
the child's experience. It is a great waste of time to 
fish after facts which somehow will not come to the 
surface. 



50 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

7. After failing to get an answer to one question, 
teachers do not like to give up in defeat and so ask 
another and another question, until perhaps a loop- 
hole of escape appears, or the teacher himself is com- 
pelled in the end to explain and give the answer. 

8. A common fault is that of repeating one's ques- 
tions, as well as the answers of the children. 

9. A frequent error in stating questions is that of 
giving one question, then changing or modifying it 
in various ways until the children can understand it. 
This procedure suggests that the instructor has not 
reflected upon his questions and boiled them down 
to what is definite and essential. 

10. A serious problem in dealing with questions and 
answers is that of handling skillfully the repHes made 
by the children. To incorporate the answers and con- 
tributions of the children into the forward thought- 
movement without wasting time on trivial side issues, 
requires broadmindedness and quick and accurate 
judgment. 

1 1 . In lively and thoughtful instruction many ques- 
tions spring from the children themselves that are 
worthy of careful consideration. 

12. It is an encouraging sign to see children coming 
into a class recitation prepared to ask important 
questions. It proves that they have been set to think- 
ing either in the previous lesson or during the study 
period. 



CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION 51 

5. Attention 

I. The success of all mental activity depends upon 
the degree of attentiveness to the thing in hand. 
[/^ 2. The teacher can help children in their work by 
providing the conditions favorable to strong attention, 
as follows : (a) a subject of study that naturally com- 
mands the interest and attention of children ; (b) set- 
ting up aims and problems that concentrate thought 
upon important and difficult topics ; (c) physical and 
mental freshness in the children; (d) the removal 
of disturbing influences. 

3. The energetic will of the teacher may reenforce 
the vacillating will of the children in securing atten- 
tion to the lesson. 

4. In the act of attention the mind is focalized 
for an instant upon one thing, and then moves on to 
the next and the next, etc. A progressive movement 
of thought is required in order to hold the attention. 
Otherwise it jumps the track and wanders off. 

5. Mental effort in classrooms goes properly by 
spurts, or strong impulses, with short periods of re- 
laxation. As in boxing, a three minutes^ vigorous 
effort, followed by a minute of rest, etc. Primary 
children cannot work with full vigor more than five 
or ten minutes at a time. Then should follow a short 
rest and transition to something else. 

6. German schools lay great stress upon attentive- 



52 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

ness in the classroom, and they provide long rest 
periods between the recitation periods. 

7. In oral recitations, where no textbooks are used, 
success depends upon close attention. The habit of 
inattention, cultivated in the classroom, repeats and 
fixes itself in the study periods at home and school. 
The classroom is the place to train children to right 
habits. 

8. Laxity of attention in classrooms is a somewhat 
marked feature of many of our schools. 

9. One of the chief difficulties for young teachers 
(and often for older ones) is that of securing and hold- 
ing class attention. 

10. Fresh air, gymnastic exercises and recesses or 
rests properly distributed, are a direct support to at- 
tention. 



CHAPTER V 

THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 

I. How to Judge and Criticize Class Recitations 

1. Note first the position and grouping of the class 
with regard to teacher, blackboard, maps and illus- 
trative materials, and with regard to light from win- 
dows. The compact grouping of the pupils so as to 
be easily surveyed and controlled by the teacher is 
of importance. 

2. Manner, dress, and attitude of the teacher be- 
fore the class. Is he confident or diffident, energetic 
or impassive, stiff or flexible, agreeable or offish, well 
equipped or unprepared, over critical or overindulgent, 
neat and tasteful in dress or careless. 

3. Discover the plan of the day's lesson and its 
relation to the series of lessons in the larger topic. 
Does this lesson fit in closely to the thought-movement 
of the entire subject? In the review of previous 
points and in the assignment for the next lesson, do we 
observe a well-organized plan ? 

4. Is the teacher a full master (i) of the subject 
of study in its facts and thought relations ; (2) of the 

S3 



54 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

attention and interest of children ; (3) of the thought 
processes by which children appropriate knowledge? 

5. Is the teacher skillful in the clear presentation 
of difficult points and in calling forth adequate re- 
productions from the class? Is the response of the 
class to the teacher's questions and leadership strong 
and self-reliant ? 

6. Is he an adept in questioning and in managing 
discussion? Can he direct the children into strong 
and independent thinking while holding firmly to 
essential points in the close line of argument? All 
discussion tends to run wild. Does the teacher hold 
it to the point without damage to freedom ? 

7. Is the teacher incisive and definite in bringing 
the main ideas into prominence so that they are clearly 
grasped by the pupils and expressed in fitting lan- 
guage ? Have the children's ideas been cleared up on 
important points so that these stand out sharply in 
their minds ? 

8. Is too much attention bestowed upon a few 
pupils, either upon the quicker or the slower ones, in 
the class ? Is the class spirit kept up without losing 
track of individuals ? 

9. Does the master dominate the class too much 
with his own opinion and authority, or does he throw 
the children more and more upon their own resources 
in thinking and in expressing their thought ? 

10. Does the teacher keep a just balance between 



THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 55 

accuracy in little things and the emphasis of important 
ideas or principles? Can these two things be com- 
bined in one recitation ? 

11. Is he versatile in simple, concrete modes of illus- 
trations, whether by anecdote, personal experience and 
humorous example, or by blackboard sketching, dia- 
gram, dramatic action, figures of speech, and sim- 
plicity and clearness in language. 

12. In its results test the recitation upon the value 
of the knowledge acquired and organized during the 
class period, the kind of thinking done, and the spirit 
developed in the class toward the subject of study. 

13. As a consequence of the lesson, will children 
know better how to study? how to apply their ef- 
forts more independently to the succeeding problems 
of study ? Is there incHnation to push on further in 
the study of the subject ? 

14. Did the lesson have insufficient variety to keep 
up a lively mental activity, or did it tend toward mo- 
notony and consequent dullness and inattention ? 

15. What was the special aim of this lesson, and to 
what extent was it reahzed in the work accomplished ? 

16. Was the teacher alert to make use of the chil- 
dren's previous life experiences and knowledge gained 
in school studies? Was there much connection be- 
tween this lesson and other lessons ? 

17. Did the instructor take suj65cient time and 
pains in the assignment of the succeeding lesson ? 



56 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

1 8. Was the teacher properly attentive to correct 
language expression and full sentence construction ? 

19. Did the teacher talk too much or too little? 

20. Was good use made of the contributions brought 
by the pupils to the discussion of topics ? 

21. Were the teacher's questions well digested, clear, 
and properly centered on the main points ? 

22. Was there waste of time in discussion, in repe- 
titions, in class management, or in other ways ? 

23. In observing a lesson, take a few notes of such 
definite character as to illustrate the points of criti- 
cism. Give full credit for the excellences shown in a 
recitation. Avoid all unkindly and harsh criticism. 

2. Where to Center Attention 

The concentration of attention and effort upon 
important points and upon difficulties that must 
be met is the secret of success in much of our study. 
The failure to strike these important points hard 
and to drill upon them is accountable for much ill- 
success. 

I. In spelling a list of words it is advisable to put 
the list on the board and examine them one by one to 
discover what the special difficulty is in each case, 
to focus attention upon the point where a mistake is 
Hkely to occur, as in the word separate; the middle 
syllable sep-a-rate is the danger point. In their 



THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 57 

following study the children will fall upon these 
special points with vigor. 

2. In a reading lesson, proper names, as in the 
poems of " Horatius " or '' Hiawatha," need to be ex- 
amined and clearly pronounced and the specially 
troublesome names given in concert and singly in the 
assignment of the lesson. 

3. Likewise in geographical studies, hard names 
deserve special preliminary attention and a correct 
pronunciation secured before study and drill are re- 
quired. They will then know upon what to center 
attention. 

4. In the correction of common faults in the use 
of English, a small number of the more common 
errors in the use of the verb to be, of pronouns, of con- 
tractions, of homonyms, and of irregular verbs, should 
be clearly shown by examples, the proper forms placed 
conspicuously on the blackboard and kept before the 
children until habits of correct use are estabHshed. 

5. In sketching maps of states, or continents or 
countries, show children, in the introduction to a map- 
making lesson, how to see the large prominent features 
of a map, its main bulk and dimensions, its shape 
as a whole in proper proportions, and neglect the little 
points, the small crooks and details. Fix the atten- 
tion upon these essential features as a clear sugges- 
tion how to study. 

6. In arithmetic teach children to find the pivot of 



58 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

the problem, and the grouping of facts around this 
point. In working out a process Hke long division or 
the division of fractions, there is one spot in the 
process where the main difficulty Ues. Fix attention 
upon this, illustrate it and clear it up, before assigning 
a lesson in problems to apply this process. In the 
writing of decimals, before giving problems, see to it 
that the children image the number before writing it. 
Let them get the habit of determining the number of 
places to the right of the decimal point, the number of 
zeros required, and then be prepared to write the 
number correctly from left to right promptly. 

7. In assigning a lesson in spelling from a passage 
in the reading lesson, teach the children how to pick 
out the difl&cult words, especially those used commonly 
in letter writing or composition. Notice which words 
are phonetically spelled, which are peculiar and ex- 
ceptional. Make a list of those deserving particular 
attention. 

8. In an oral lesson in history or science or geog- 
raphy, teach children how to discriminate between 
minor facts and leading points, how to make an out- 
line of essential subtopics, each of which is an 
important center of thought. This forms then the 
basis of reproductions and of later reviews and drills. 
The making of good outlines is a fine art, requiring 
a careful judgment of values and an accent upon 
essentials. 



THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 59 

9. In the study of literary selections, lead children 
to hunt out the main theme, the controlling motive 
in each important act or section of the story and of the 
whole poem or story. The entire treatment will 
hinge upon the wise selection of the chief idea or mo- 
tive in a masterpiece. 

These few illustrations will serve to show how great 
an economy may be secured and how much more 
efficiency in studies is possible if children are taught 
where, that is, upon what points, to concentrate their 
attention as a basis for thorough mastery and drill. 

The less important facts and topics can be passed 
upon more quickly or dropped to one side. 

3. Formal Routine and Humdrum 

Humdrum is defined in the dictionary as dull, com- 
monplace, tedious, etc. There are many school 
exercises which seem to possess a natural tendency 
to run into formal routine and humdrum. Even the 
most interesting studies, in the hands of a sleepy 
teacher, drop down to a drowsy monotony. A few 
of the more marked examples of humdrum may be 
stated as follows : 

I. In reading lessons, where children read con- 
tinuously without suggestion or criticism, and without 
apparent aim. The teacher's one remark is, "Read 
on, Mary," "Read on, Peter." 



6o HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

2. In primary reading, word drills are apt to be- 
come dull and tiresome. Indeed, it is difficult to hold 
the attention of the little folks upon them. The 
teacher is put to it to find original devices and variety 
of work for such emergencies. 

3. The learning of dictionary definitions of words, 
without insight to apply them to the sentences in 
hand. 

4. Memorizing and reciting passages and poems 
that are not well understood. 

5. Drill in the spelling of meaningless words. 

6. Grammatical analysis and diagramming of sen- 
tences may take on the character of formal routine. 
In such cases, for example, simple words like a, the, 
and and are repeated and explained a hundred times. 
The teacher should drop these familiar, simple things, 
and turn attention only to those constructions that 
involve some difficulty of thought. 

7. The memorizing and repetition of definitions 
and rules that are not clearly understood, in grammar 
and arithmetic. Such rules should be derived directly 
from abundant illustrations which make them intel- 
ligible and then applied to new cases. 

8. The exact verbal analysis of problems and pro- 
cesses in arithmetic may become exceedingly formal, 
tedious, and discouraging. 

9. The verbal memorizing of textbook lessons in 
history and geography without imaging the scenes, 



THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 6i 

or thinking out the meanings. Such thoughtless 
memorizing betrays its emptiness by its monotony 
and lack of expression. 

10. Reviews and drills upon fixed series of facts in 
history and geography without new interpretation. 
Such chronological tables in history and formal series 
of names in geography often have no underlying 
thought connection. 

11. The rote singing of songs without emphasis of 
thought or sentiment, or even without appreciation 
of the musical quahty of the selection. 

12. Dictations in constructive work and blue print 
directions in the shop exercises prove that formal and 
thoughtless routine is as dangerous and depressing 
in the manual arts as in grammar and reading. 

13. Catechisms in religious instruction easily drop 
into this formal routine. 

14. The history of science teaching and of nature 
study reveals a similar drift toward formalism, as in 
the old method of plant analysis, in the memorizing 
of classifications and orders in animals or insects, and 
in the description of plants or animals according to 
a tabulated scheme. 

15. In studying literature from textbooks, even the 
facts, names of books, and other data of an author's 
life, as of Irving or Bryant, can be brought into a dull 
routine as humdrum as anything. 

16. Even physical exercises and marching may take 



62 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

on the lockstep and the dull movement. The out- 
door games of children, when too carefully supervised 
and controlled, lose their freedom and spontaneity, 
becoming dull and uninteresting. 

17. These and other illustrations that might be 
enumerated make it plain that almost any kind of 
school exercise may easily drop down into routine 
and humdrum. The question may be fairly asked 
whether any kind of school work, if kept up to a nor- 
mal, healthy tone, should ever become humdrum. 
Humdrum implies sleepiness, and is the vanishing 
point of thought and spirit. 

4. How Time is Wasted 

Economy in the use of time is one of the first essen- 
tials of good school work. In contrast to this primary 
need of economy and efficiency, our school exercises 
show, in several ways, a serious loss of time. What 
is still more serious, the habits of wasting time formed 
in the schools are perpetuated in the various callings 
of later life. 

The channels through which time runs to waste in 
the schools may be noted as follows : 

I. In not devising and executing, in each subject 
of study, a well-defined plan of work. Definite goals 
must be clearly fixed in mind, and the work pressed 
forward steadily toward their accomplishment. This 



THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 63 

requires systematic planning and skill in execution, 
also the selection of definite units of study in proper 
order. 

2. By not planning and executing promptly room 
and class movements. For lack of forethought in 
giving directions, children become confused in taking 
their places at the board, in passing and collecting 
materials, etc. 

3. By not providing the necessary physical condi- 
tions for vigorous mental effort. Time is wasted in 
trying to teach children in a hot, poorly ventilated 
room, or when they are tired, sleepy, or nervously 
imstrung. 

4. In lecturing children too much about good 
order, behavior, and delinquencies, while forgetting 
to execute promptly and steadily requirements al- 
ready made. 

5. In scolding and reproving children publicly 
till they become hardened and willful in opposition. 

6. In not securing and holding a strong and general 
class attention. This may be done by planning the 
work so as to make it interesting and valuable in con- 
tent. 

7. In trying to teach the principles of a new lesson 
before recalling and bringing into service earUer knowl- 
edge and experience upon which these principles are 
based. 

8. In not watching the whole class, but confining 



64 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

the attention to one or two reciting, so that the 
class as a whole loses interest and drifts away. The 
work must then be done again for the sake of de- 
linquents. 

9. In half -learning things; that is, running over 
a mass of knowledge somewhat hastily, so that the 
facts and ideas are not clearly fixed, the meanings 
and relations are vaguely understood, and thorough 
reviews and drills are omitted. 

10. In following a loose method of development 
work, with much free discussion, and a failure to clear 
up the main line of thought. Many small matters 
and side issues are allowed to absorb the time. There 
is lack of discrimination between important and im- 
important. Inferences are drawn upon a too slender 
basis of facts. 

11. In indefinite and poorly framed questions which 
prompt the children to loose guessing. 

12. In the teacher's talking and explaining too 
much. The burden of effort should be thrown heavily 
upon the pupils, and teachers should not monopolize 
the time even with interesting lectures, to say nothing 
of mere talk. 

13. In lifeless and humdrum exercises that deaden 
the spirit and ambition of the class. 

14. In waiting too long for the poorer members of 
the class, or in trying to follow out some abortive line 
of questioning. 



THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 65 

15. In trying to force an answer from a child when 
he is manifestly unable or unwilling to give it. 

16. In allowing children to criticize each other's 
work. They waste too much time on trivial errors. 

17. In disputing with children. 

18. In the hasty, loose, and unpremeditated assign- 
ment of lessons. Thus questions, disputes, and un- 
reasonable requirements arise. Such faulty assign- 
ments are prolific in bad results. 

19. Time is wasted during the study period, (i) be- 
cause of a lack of a definite program of work, (2) be- 
cause difficulties are met for which the pupils are not 
prepared, (3) because of dawdling and inattentive 
habits cultivated, (4) because children disturb one 
another, sometimes trying to study together. 

5. The Study Period 

1. During the study period, unless the children 
are strongly supervised, they drop easily into careless 
habits and poor work. 

2. It is not enough to keep children orderly and 
busy during the study period. A standard of neat 
and careful work should be kept up and errors foreseen 
and avoided. 

3. Children left to themselves often dawdle in 
their work. They make many careless blunders, and 
get established in bad habits. 



66 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

4. Great pains should be taken to make careful 
and definite assignments for the study period. If 
the teacher can give attention to those working during 
the study period and hinder mistakes or prevent 
careless, slipshod work, he will save much time. 

5. The old theory that children should be left to 
their own resources during the study period and 
should master their lessons independently, receiving 
Uttle or no help, is good only in part. The careless 
habits of study and of doing things, formed by children 
when left to themselves, interfere seriously with 
efficiency. 

6. It is doubtful if children under any circum- 
stances should be allowed the freedom to be careless 
and heedless in their work. 

7. As far as possible, forewarn children and prevent 
them from making mistakes. Every mistake and 
careless performance is the beginning of a bad habit 
or the strengthening of an old fault. 

8. Dictation exercises in language lead to many 
mistakes which should be foreseen and avoided. 
Call attention beforehand to probable mistakes in 
use of capitals, abbreviations, spelling, and sentence 
form. 

9. The teacher must be persistent in maintaining 
good standards during the study period as well as in 
the recitation. 

10. A Uttle time spent in examining and correcting 



THE CRITICISM OF INSTRUCTION 67 

papers executed during the study period will help 
to keep up these standards. 

11. There is much danger of helping some children 
too much during the study period, and of neglecting 
others. Some children lean very heavily upon the 
teacher for help. Others are too independent. 

12. Even with two classes in the room, and with 
one reciting at a time, much can be done by thought- 
ful foresight and by inspecting results to keep up good 
standards of careful work. 



CHAPTER VI 

GENERAL PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 

I. Problems not Easily Solved 

The following statements suggest problems of un- 
usual practical importance which are not easily 
solved, but require the constant attentive considera- 
tion of teachers. 

1. Spencer's idea of natural punishments, i.e. 
how to adjust penalties to the misdemeanors of chil- 
dren, so as to give full play to the natural results 
which follow the deed; illustrated by the old story 
of the boy who cried "wolf." 

2. To encourage initiative in children, that is, 
leadership in projecting plans, in devising problems, 
and in inventing ways of meeting. difficulties. Robin- 
son Crusoe illustrates initiative. The schoolroom, 
because of its formal requirements, is slow to prompt 
to initiative. 

3. How to deal with children who are weak in 
power of attention, who lack steadiness and concen- 
tration of thought, whose minds flit about incessantly 
from topic to topic. 

68 



GENERAL PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 69 

4. Can we plan the work in such a way as to get 
good English in all studies, or at least a constant at- 
tention to correct and appropriate language in every 
lesson so that children will steadily improve in lan- 
guage power ? 

5. Are we able to deal with children during the 
study period so that they will learn how to study, 
how to use books, how to master lessons and think 
for themselves ? Some recitations are best employed 
in teaching children how to use their books. Three 
effective ways of influencing a child's study : (a) by 
careful and suggestive assignments, (b) by more or 
less supervision of the study period, (c) by tests, 
criticisms, and discussions during the recitation. 

6. How shall we keep up a strong connection and 
continuity of thought in studies from grade to grade ? 
This would lay emphasis upon underlying unities and 
sequences in studies and courses. In history, for 
example, a deeper study of causes and effects, and 
more continuous treatment by big topics. 

7. Is there a way of making the study of grammar 
of practical use, with real motives for the children 
and with direct influence in correcting and improving 
children's common use of English? E.g. the study 
of irregular verbs, their parts and conjugations, should 
aid in avoiding common mistakes. A more constant 
and rigorous appHcation of grammatical principles to 
all studies should help in this. 



70 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

8. Are we able to determine the predominant in- 
terests and impulses of children, their characteristic 
feelings and mental attitudes, during their succeeding 
periods of growth, and can we apply this knowledge 
to a better selection of materials for a suitable course 
of study ? 

9. What are the ways and means for developing 
a liberal, many-sided, sociafdisposition, first in teach- 
ers, second in children ? The school is a cooperative 
group and may cultivate at all times the social spirit 
and the social virtues. 

10. How to discriminate wisely in dealing with 
children and with subject matter so as to ask suit- 
able and pertinent questions in development instruc- 
tion. 

11. How to organize the knowledge materials of 
any important complex topic into a closeknit, logical 
sequence of main points, to give an adequate treat- 
ment of each point, and to complete the thought 
movement so as to bring out a well rounded whole, 
or unit of instruction. 

12. How to deal with children's physical defects and 
by overcoming them improve their chances for mental 
progress. Teachers should acquire some skill in 
detecting physical defects of eyes, ears, throat, skin, 
etc. 

13. The difficulty of getting an adequate supervision 
of children's games, outdoor sports, exercises, etc. 



GENERAL PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 71 

In the end some sort of special provision should be 
made for supervising playgrounds. 

14. The broad general difficulty of getting a close 
connection between our fundamental theories and 
practice. 

2. General Principles to be Respected and Worked into 
Practice 

1. All studies and all management ought to con- 
tribute to the important aim of moral improvement. 
Honest and serious effort, developing into habit, be- 
long to all school work. 

2. The conditions for physical health and vigor 
must first be provided for by thoughtful consideration. 

3. Adjustment, in the broad sense of fitting into 
life conditions, social, industrial, and physical, is a 
universal requirement. 

4. Respect for and cultivation of individuality 
has Hkewise the widest scope and calls for broadmind- 
edness and many-sided appreciation of individual 
traits. 

5. Self-activity and initiative, the development 
of originality and resourcefulness in pupils, is one of 
the important and difficult achievements. It is one 
of those superior qualities that the schoolmaster with 
his dominating and controlling influence is inclined 
to overlook, if not actually to discourage. 



72 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

6. A many-sided interest in knowledge, giving 
motive to a child's study, is an essential element in 
all wholesome and hearty instruction. It should be 
combined with the problem-solving idea which sets 
up diflSiculties to be mastered, and calls for strenuous 
effort. The combination of interest with strenuous 
effort gives completeness to mental action. 

7. The inductive-deductive thought movement is 
basal for the intellectual processes that give mastery 
to knowledge. The general thought movement from 
the individual to the abstract, and back again to the 
individual or concrete, is of primary importance in 
elementary instruction. 

8. Apperception, i.e. the constant development of 
knowledge on the basis of one's previous experience 
and acquisitions, is one of the surest tests of right 
methods in teaching. To connect up a child's new 
acquisitions with his past experience keeps a teacher 
very alert. 

9. The principle of habit formation, the laying 
down of right habits, and the avoidance of wrong 
ones, is the means for clinching educational values. 
To be of much practical value, all knowledge must 
reach the stage of habit. 

10. Mental discipline is habit carried one step far- 
ther and reaches over into allied fields of effort, and, 
perhaps in some measure, into all fields of thought. 

11. Continuity in thought processes in studies re- 



GENERAL PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 73 

quires the teacher to look beneath the surface to dis- 
cover those underlying ideas and connecting links 
which bind together the different and often widely 
separated topics of a study, as in arithmetic, history, 
etc. In order to work out these fundamental connec- 
tions, the teacher should read in between the lines of 
the textbook. At this point thoughtfuhiess and the 
reflective habit ripen knowledge into its best fruitage. 

3. Course of Study. 

1. Our present elementary course of study has 
been made more complex by the addition of several 
new studies, and by enriching some of the older studies. 
As it now stands it needs simplification and closer 
organization. 

2. Those parts of the old course of study that are 
no longer serviceable for our modern hfe can be 
dropped out. Some of the new studies also require 
sifting, reserving only the really essential parts. 

3. In recent years there has been a fluctuation in 
values among studies and a shifting of standards of 
value so that courses of study have been very imset- 
tled. Great changes have been made, and others are 
in progress. 

4. Teachers are called upon to exercise their best 
wisdom and to take broad views of the whole field of 
studies to determine (a) what studies are relatively 



74 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

more important, such as reading and arithmetic, what 
of secondary moment, as writing and spelling ; (b) what 
are the leading or central topics in each of these im- 
portant studies ; (c) how to organize into a close series 
the large topics in each study ; (d) how to correlate 
the studies themselves with one another and make 
them stronger by mutual helpfulness ; (e) a method for 
the thorough treatment and mastery of these large 
topics. 

5. The lack of continuity of thought in passing 
from grade to grade is emphasized by the fact that 
each teacher is responsible for but a single grade, and 
is disposed to look not far beyond it. The steady 
growth of knowledge and the close dependence of 
each year's work upon preceding years require 
teachers to broaden their view. 

6. The reconstruction of the course of study along 
the lines required by modem life calls for a thoughtful 
and reflective survey of the whole field of knowledge 
with such a selection and organization of its materials 
as will contribute to the fundamental aim of education. 

7. This chief aim itself is only gradually coming 
clearly into view. It involves at least the best culti- 
vation and training of the individual in his resources 
and his adjustment to the social and industrial world 
of his surroundings. 

8. The surprising richness of the various special 
branches of knowledge, as history, science, literature. 



GENERAL PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES 75 

etc., raises the important question of selection. We 
need a simple course of study and one, at the same 
time, very rich in content. 

9. While it is necessary to project a course of study, 
definitely determined as to its main topics and their 
serial arrangement, much freedom should be left to 
the teacher in the details of treatment and method. 

10. A full course of study contains, of necessity, 
a great variety of studies, widely different from each 
other (as arithmetic and music, or science and Htera- 
ture) ; in fact, almost contradictory in character, at 
times. All these studies are necessary, and they 
show the need for breadth and liberality in teachers. 
No teacher in the common school should narrow him- 
self down to the routine of one or two branches of 
study. Every teacher should acquaint himself fully 
with the course of study as a whole. 

4. Textbooks and Apparatus 

1. The textbooks, reference books, libraries, and 
apparatus that go with a course of study are entirely 
essential to its efficiency. 

2. A textbook is usually some experienced teacher's 
plan for handling a subject, and, to be used at all, 
needs first to be thoroughly understood as to its 
underlying purpose and method. It requires to 
be studied as a whole, and in detail. 



76 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

3. Textbooks are necessary condensations of great, 
rich subjects. They are outlines and guidebooks. 
The rich stuff that lies back of them in other larger 
books, and in life, should somehow be brought into 
relation to the text. 

4. Teachers should be steadily enriching their own 
minds with the resources of knowledge found in the 
big, fruitful books and more elaborate treatises found 
in libraries, or with books of travel, of biography, of 
practical and applied science. 

5. Teachers should read interesting books of strong 
writers who stir thought and emotion, as Kingsley, 
Scott, Irving, Macaulay, Eliot, Bryant, Stevenson, 
Kipling, Browning, Shakespeare, Homer, Huxley, 
John Fiske, Carlyle, Ruskin, etc. 

6. Teachers should keep in touch with modern life 
through newspapers, magazines, and journals of 
geography, science, and economics. All studies should 
culminate in a better understanding and appreciation 
for what is going on in the world to-day. 

7. A constant training in the use of dictionaries, 
encyclopedias, maps, and reference books is a very 
important part of every child's education to accuracy 
and to self-rehant modes of serving himself in acquir- 
ing knowledge. 



CHAPTER VII 

SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 

I. Language Regulatives 

GENERAL 

1. Language exercises, as far as possible, should 
have a basis in stimulating thought material. Some 
sort of vital experience should give a real interest, if 
not a compelling motive, for language expression. A 
rabbit hunt or a vacation frolic, or Kit Carson pursued 
by the bears, or a poem may furnish this. 

Lively prose selections, such as short stories of ad- 
venture, travel, discovery, personal history, dialogue, 
and humorous passages can set the mind in action and 
keep up the thought movement. 

2. Language efficiency illustrates the demand for 
continuity of effort throughout the grades. The 
standards and requirements of the earlier grades 
should be kept in mind. There can be no neglect 
of previous lessons, no dropping down of the standard 
to carelessness or oversight in language expression. 

3. The standard of excellence in language should 
be high enough to produce a conscious effort at correct 

77 



78 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

and forcible expression, but not so strenuous as to 
interfere seriously with a child's thinking. Constant 
alertness in the kindly correction of mistakes is more 
effective than a perfect standard of excellence vigor- 
ously enforced. 

4. Let the teacher be careful in speech, clear and 
accurate in pronunciation, choice in the use of words, 
and well-balanced in sentence construction. Such 
an example operates visibly in shaping children's 
habits of speech. 

5. Improvements in speech are matters of slow, 
gradual growth in habit formation. 

6. The framework of sentence construction, in its 
more famihar forms, should grow into an unconscious 
habit of thought. This can be brought about in part 
by the children becoming thoroughly acquainted with 
a few standard forms which serve as patterns. The 
memorizing from time to time of standard prose sen- 
tences will gradually induce a habit of similar sentence 
construction. Such passages should deserve mem- 
orizing for their thought value. 

7. The memorizing of dialogue selections and occa- 
sional dramatization help also to fix in mind the more 
common constructional forms used in conversation. 

8. The memorizing of definitions and rules in 
various studies, when once clearly understood, have 
this additional value as types of good sentence con- 
struction. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 79 
PRIMARY GRADES 

1. Oral story- telling by teachers and frequent 
reproduction by children is the school's best means of 
early fixing right habits of speech. 

2. The early reading, nature study, and story-telling 
with their simple conversational forms afford number- 
less opportunities for assimilating into children's 
speech a variety of correct words, idioms, and simple 
sentence constructions. 

3. In all language, the more closely we combine 
distinct hearing, clear-cut pronunciation, sharp seeing, 
and written reproduction of forms (on board or paper) , 
the firmer will be the children's grasp of the language 
elements. The four senses cooperate when acting 
almost simultaneously. 

4. By cultivating early a free and imconstrained 
activity with crayon, pencil, and pen, the habit of 
writing, as a mode of expression, becomes almost as 
easy and natural as oral speech and can be freely 
employed in all the later grades. Imitating the 
teacher's large easy arm movements at the board, 
the children may write words and sentences in full, 
round form. The early seat writing should be big 
and free. Board and seat work should be under the 
close inspection of the teacher. Small cramped 
finger motions are the bane of the children's early 
writing. 

5. In primary exercises the correct uses of pronouns, 



8o HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

of simple verbs, adjectives, and adverbs may be in- 
culcated by kindly suggestion and practice. 

6. For seat work the copying of short verses and 
memorized passages should be continued from first 
into second and third grade. 

7. Short dictation exercises and copying of memor- 
ized passages afford excellent drill. 

INTERMEDIATE GRADES 

1. The oral speech of children in reproducing 
or reciting lessons should be an object of close obser- 
vation by teachers : first of all, to find out what power 
the children have in sentence construction; and, 
second, to note common errors that need correction. 

2. This closer, keener study of a child's speech will 
detect his faults in thinking as well as his grammatical 
errors. This knowledge then becomes the basis for the 
campaign for better English that is to follow. 

3. In correcting and improving a child's oral 
speech in the recitation, the teacher is dealing with 
one of the most fundamental and difficult problems 
of instruction. The question is, how shall we criticize 
these language faults and lead him into correct usage 
without interfering with his thought processes ? 

In this connection three modes are suggested: 
a. Many verbal errors can be quietly and inci- 
dentally corrected by kindly suggestion without 
serious interruption. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 8l 

h. Other corrections can be made at the close of a 
child^s talk, and more emphasis given to the errors 
and their revision. 

c. Some of these more common mistakes may be 
definitely taken up in the language lesson, and drills 
upon correct usage be given. 

4. The definite and systematic correction and im- 
provement of oral speech is a pressing duty in every 
recitation of every study. Without it slovenliness in 
thought as well as in words is sure to follow. Clear- 
ness and distinctness in utterance are also involved. 

5. In each grade the teacher is responsible for 
maintaining the standards set up in the earlier grades, 
first in respect of the larger language aims which 
stretch through the whole school course, second with 
respect to the special forms of error which have been 
drilled upon in the preceding grades. This is what we 
mean by the continuity of effort, uninterrupted by 
change of teachers from year to year. 

6. The framework of speech, that is, the important 
forms of sentence construction, are forcibly inculcated 
in such thought studies as history, literature, science, 
geography, etc. If correct language has been neg- 
lected in these studies, the language teacher has a 
garden to cultivate already overgrown with weeds. 

7. First of all, therefore, we must throw the em- 
phasis back upon oral speech and the oral recitation 
as the root out of which language springs. In order 



82 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

to avoid dealing with bad habits, we must get correct 
habits established in oral speech as early as possible. 

8. In written exercises children may often give 
an oral statement of topics with care as to correct 
language, before writing. 

9. Distribute according to some definite plan the 
paper and pencils, or pens and ink. Often much time 
is wasted with these details. 

10. Before writing give a few plain directions as to 
special points. Remind the children of two or more 
common errors in recent lessons. Difficult names or 
other new words may require a blackboard drill. 

1 1 . During their writing let the teacher pass quietly 
among them, noting errors and giving advice. Care- 
lessness in their written work will only strengthen 
bad habits. 

12. In written board work similar watchfulness is 
necessary. Let children use erasers sparingly, or only 
by permission. Let them respond quickly to class 
orders and movements. 

13. In examining board work children may be en- 
couraged to acuteness in detecting their own and 
others' errors ; but trivial criticism should be checked. 

14. The language books are of much service for seat 
work. 

15. Use the blackboard for showing children how 
to break up the line of thought into simple sentences, 
paragraphs, etc. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 83 

16. A few at least of the papers handed in (if not 
all) should be carefully corrected and then discussed 
in the class. Children are disposed to sHght the cor- 
rections and to repeat their mistakes. Steady pres- 
sure is necessary in order to secure correct usage. 

17. The outline of a previous lesson in history, 
geography, or nature study may frequently serve as 
a basis for composition. Such outlines should be clear 
and logical as to main points. 

18. Have a special aim for children in each lesson, 
as a rule in punctuation, or capitaHzation, or a correct 
form in letter writing. 

19. Success depends upon the mastery and steady 
appHcation of a very few requirements, and of persist- 
ently reviewing and keeping in mind these few essen- 
tial things. 

20. In correcting common faults in grammar, keep 
a few standard forms on the blackboard in a con- 
spicuous place for constant reference until correct 
habit is secured. 

GRAMMAR GRADES 

I. The chief aim of language work in grammar 
grades is the power and habit of constructing good sen- 
tences and also of combining them into continuous dis- 
course. To gain this result, children should become 
thoroughly familiar with standard sentence construc- 
tions in a variety of forms. This may be done : 



84 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

a. By memorizing simple prose passages from good 
sources. The same passages may be later used for 
grammatical analysis in its various phases. 

h. By keeping up a high standard of connected oral 
speech in reciting lessons, especially in grammar, 
history, geography, and science. 

c. By strong and vigorous thought analysis in 
reading lessons, and by grouping of words into phrases 
and clauses according to sense. 

d. By drill and criticism of sentence construction 
in composition. Use the blackboard to exhibit the 
superior forms of sentence structure. 

e. By careful grammatical analysis of sentence con- 
struction, together with study of thought relations in 
the sentence. 

/. By classroom discussion of sentences and their 
construction, of idioms and peculiar forms and ex- 
pressions in English. 

g. By unconscious assimilation in reading. 

h. By constant thoughtfulness about correct lan- 
guage in all lessons. 

2. The series of drills to avoid common errors of 
speech is reviewed and continued through the gram- 
mar grades. Grammar often explains the reason for 
correct usage, and makes it rational. This series of 
common errors is outlined in the language books. 

3. Constant alertness in observing and criticizing 
mistakes, combined with encouragement to thought- 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 8$ 

fulness and effort in using good English, requires 
unusual skill and persistence in teaching. 

4. From the fifth grade on, the use of the dic- 
tionary should become familiar, and grow into habit. 
Also of cyclopedias and reference books. Independ- 
ence and freedom in the use of such books are im- 
portant. 

5. The common rules for spelling, punctuation, 
capitalization and paragraphing may be worked out 
(inductively) and appHed. The results in the form 
of rules and illustrations should be written out in neat, 
permanent book form by the children. 

6. Composition, in its nature, calls for freedom, 
originality, and invention. The teacher will use his 
ingenuity in devising topics and calling out lively 
experiences that open a way for the spontaneous ex- 
pressiveness of children. This may be accomplished 
by discovering and using : 

a. Topics children are interested in individually, as 
in making a canoe, or constructing a tree house, or a 
trip among the northern lakes, or an experiment in 
cooking. 

b. Interesting episodes in history, travel, biography, 
adventure. 

c. Composition of poems for class celebrations, etc. 

d. Humorous incidents and funny stories. 

e. Reviews of books read, or plays heard, or pic- 
tures seen, etc. 



86 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

/. Setting up problematic situations in stories or 
historical narratives to be worked out by the inge- 
nuity of pupils. 

7. Grammar pupils, especially boys, are disposed 
to throw off careless and unsightly papers. They 
should be quietly and firmly held to neat and well- 
written paper work. The preservation and compar- 
ison of a child's papers for the year is often helpful. 

Grammar 

1. Grammar should be first of all a study of thought 
relations within the compass of the sentence. It 
impUes a vigorous thought analysis, a training in 
accurate thinking in standard Enghsh constructions. 

Composition carries this thinking process still 
further into the thought connections within the 
paragraph and within the larger units of study such as 
the essay, story, or poem. 

2. The clearer, the more concrete and stimulating 
the thought materials for grammar exercises, the less 
abstract and obscure they are, the better. 

3. Grammar grade teachers may find opportunity 
to apply constantly in other studies the principles of 
thought interpretation and construction which are 
being studied concurrently in the grammar. Gram- 
mar studies should spring out of the superior thought 
matter of other studies and again find frequent appli- 
cation in them. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 87 

4. Grammar, in seventh and eighth grades, by 
gathering up the fruitage of earher language studies, 
is the chief means for reviewing, rationalizing, and 
organizing the formal and conventional usages of 
previous years. 

5. The inductive method is well suited to showing 
up the principles of sentence construction and to the 
treatment of the parts of speech. In every case an illu- 
minating series of clear and simple examples can be 
worked out and compared and the principle or rule 
easily inferred. Application in a variety of forms may 
follow. 

6. In grammar grades, the numerous classifications, 
exceptions, and finer grammatical distinctions merely 
darken counsel with words. 

THINGS TO BE EMPHASIZED IN GRAMMAR 

1 . Ability to give promptly subject, predicate, and 
modifiers in sentences of usual difficulty. 

2. AbiHty to tell the part of speech of any word in 
ordinary sentences. 

3. Correct use of pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. 

4. Correct use of common irregular verbs. 

5. Correct use of relational words. 

IN COMPOSITION 

I . Ability to reproduce a plain story in good English 
correct in form. 



88 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

2. The writing of a good letter correct in form and 
content. 

3. The abihty to produce a well-arranged com- 
position on some suitable topic assigned. This 
implies some degree of readiness in original composi- 
tion. 

4. Practical ability to apply the rules of spelling, 
punctuation, and capitalization. 

2. Geography 

1. Geography illustrates the plan of large topics, 
having in each case a unity based upon an idea which 
is to be illustrated, expanded, and applied. Such a 
topic involves the elaboration of a type study as an 
organized body of thought. 

2. The process of working out such a type study 
through its complete development involves most of 
the important principles of good class instruction. 
It runs through a series of lessons revealing the 
various phases of class work such as presentation, 
questioning, discussion, reproduction, reviews, drills, 
assignments, problems, outlines, written tests, appli- 
cations. 

3. The teacher's complete mastery of the entire 
topic on the knowledge side involves both principles 
and facts, and the organization of these into a rational 
order. It requires a fulhiess and richness of knowledge 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 89 

material far beyond what is understood by the usual 
academic mastery of a subject. 

4. Well-chosen object lessons and illustrations 
and the abihty to use them with skill and aptness 
stand among the first of the teacher's requirements. 
A good teacher's thought and conversation become 
tinged with the objective, reaHstic mode of inter- 
pretation. His language is marked with figures of 
speech, images, and objective examples from common 
and daily experience. 

5. The power to image situations and complex 
processes in the natural and industrial world is put to 
frequent service. The teacher must image clearly, 
for example, the entire series of processes by which 
iron ore is changed into finished steel products. 
Geography everywhere calls into play this powerful 
faculty of imaging. The children must learn it from 
the teacher. 

6. The ready and versatile use of the blackboard 
for sketches, diagrams, and crude picturing in a mul- 
titude of ways is a special source of power in the 
teacher. Without this the geography teacher is 
shorn of half his strength. Teachers are slow to real- 
ize how valuable this is. 

7. One of the chief instruments in the teacher's 
equipment is oral description. This demands a very 
plain and lucid style of speech, choice and fitting 
words, homely figures, every idea definite and clear, 



90 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

and occasional touches of humor. Clearness and sim- 
plicity of speech are indispensable. 

8. The central idea or line of thought is the pivot 
upon which the whole treatment hinges. It is the 
center line of operations, the basis for constructing 
and organizing knowledge. 

9. In working out the whole topic a definite out- 
line of essential points should be placed on the board 
step by step, in the progress of the series of lessons. 
This outline is the standing proof of systematic and 
careful progress and is a good basis for comparisons 
and reviews. 

10. The outline of many of these topics follows a 
close sequence based upon cause and effect. It is 
indeed a series of real problems, to be worked out as 
such, and contains all the advantages of requiring 
independent thought in solving problems. They 
are also the genuine problems upon which men have 
been at work in the leading occupations. These 
problems are peculiarly adapted to oral instruction. 

11. The free discussion and development of such 
topics, with presentation, questions and answers, is 
difficult to manage. At first the teacher should de- 
pend mainly upon vivid oral narrative and descrip- 
tion, with occasional questions. Too much free dis- 
cussion is apt to run to waste in loose, incoherent talk. 
Let the teacher learn to hold to the main line of argu- 
ment and avoid digressions. The art of skillful 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 91 

questioning and development of topics is slowly mas- 
tered. 

12. In good oral lessons half the burden of work 
must be carried by the children. In several ways 
the children are to be stimulated and held to effort, 
(a) by reproducing the substance of what has been 
presented and discussed ; (b) by sketches and draw- 
ings showing their power of expression in graphic 
forms; (c) by thoughtful tracing of causes into ef- 
fects, and by solving problems; (d) by being able 
to give full connected statements of important topics 
in completing and rounding out the whole subject. 

13. The fimdamental ideas of geography run 
through all the grades from third to eighth. Teachers 
should maintain this close connection of later with 
earlier topics, and bring about a continuous organiza- 
tion from grade to grade. 

14. The most effective reviews are those secured 
through the comparison of later topics with similar 
topics treated earlier. For example, every important 
topic of Europe is open to a fruitful comparison with 
similar topics earlier treated in America, as the 
Danube with American rivers. 

15. The second important stage in the handling of 
any large topic, the expansion of the idea through 
comparisons and applications, leads to the formation 
of important series of geographical facts. A specific 
drill upon this series, with later reviews, becomes 



92 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

necessary in order to master and fix these facts in 
memory. Use the map with these drills. 

1 6. In connection with every important geographi- 
cal topic, frequent short oral drills, often in concert, 
should be carried out for the purpose of fixing the more 
significant facts, together with the related facts in 
other topics which are drawn into view. In this way 
we cover a wider range of facts and fill up the open 
spaces that may be left between our large topics. For 
such drills maps are indispensable. 

17. Around each important topic or type study 
in geography a teacher of that topic should gather a 
suitable collection of maps, pictures, products (in 
some cases), pamphlets, and references. The subject 
thus grows constantly richer, and becomes more and 
more a center for the organization of geographic mate- 
rial. Each time, also, a stronger method of treat- 
ment develops. 

18. Local home geography should be strongly fea- 
tured in the first year (fourth grade) , with excursions 
to shops and fields. It is full of the local and con- 
crete. But in all grades the return to experience and 
observation and travel in one's home surroundings 
should be emphasized. A local museum of geographi- 
cal and historical material is of great value for class- 
room uses. 

19. Board maps, sand models, reliefs, wall maps, 
pictures, geographical readers and magazines, books 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 93 

of travel, and product collections should be at the 
constant service of teachers. 

20. The textbooks are used to good advantage for 
fixing the main facts. The interpretation of maps, 
the use of statistical tables in the geographies, and the 
proper use of books of travel and reference as a reen- 
forcement to lessons should be carefully taught. 
The habit of using such material should grow steadily 
during the school years. 

21. Geography is closely correlated with other im- 
portant studies like history, science, and arithmetic. 
By constantly observing these correlations we get a 
much stronger organization of the varied materials of 
knowledge. 

3. Reading 

PRIMARY READING 

1. Learning to talk well precedes learning to read. 

2. Story-telling and learning to reproduce stories, 
more or less in imitation of the teacher, is the school's 
earliest and best means of cultivating vigor of thought 
and power of language. 

3. In story-telling the teacher cultivates a vivid 
imagination combined with simpHcity and clearness 
in the choice of words, and with accurate and pleasing 
tones. 

4. The interest of children in good stories strength- 
ens the attention and exposes their minds to the full 



94 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

force of language in the direct expression of thought. 
No other means can be devised so effectual in molding 
a child's thought and speech. 

5. The process of learning to read in the first two 
or three years of school is largely the mastery of a 
formal art. It consists in acquiring a new set of sym- 
bols for receiving and expressing thought. 

6. A very effective method of mastering the formal 
difficulties is that through the phonetic interpretation 
of new words. This presupposes the memorizing 
of the forms of the letters with their associated sounds 
or values, and practice in their combination till quick- 
ness in interpreting new words is gained. 

7. The self -activity of the children in interpreting 
new words is a marked feature of this phonetic drill 
at every step. Children should be encouraged and 
required to help themselves in getting new words and 
sentences in reading : (a) by using the new powers of 
letters as fast as they are learned for interpreting new 
words. This is done by analyzing a new word into its 
sounds and then combining them to get its pronuncia- 
tion. Distinct drill on these elements and in com- 
bining them is necessary, (b) In grasping new words, 
the four senses are employed in close conjunction : 
(i) seeing the form, (2) hearing the word pronounced, 

(3) the pronouncing of it by the children, and 

(4) writing it on the board (by the children). A new 
word is often first pronounced by the teacher, then 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 95 

analyzed and pronounced by the children, then 
written by them on the board, and finally seen. This 
fourfold grip on new words is effective. 

8. As far as possible, the first words analyzed should 
be simple and phonetic in spelling, as top, mat, fan. 
A few of the less phonetic words may require to be 
learned outright, as once, who, tea, right, etc. 

9. Lively and interesting stories are introduced 
very early into reading exercises. Children should 
read under the influence of quickening thought. The 
previous oral treatment of stories will contribute much 
to this thought impulse, and will create the desire 
for learning to read. 

10. Lively questions by the teacher touching the 
forward movement and outcome of the story will 
give impetus to effort. This vigorous guidance of 
children's thought strengthens interest and atten- 
tion. 

11. Let children pass judgment on the truth and 
worth of what they read. They should thoroughly 
enjoy the early stories, even in the first grade. 

12. The imagination of children should be prompted 
to build clear mental pictures of places, persons, and 
actions. Pictures and blackboard sketches or dra- 
matic action are also suggestive, as expressed both by 
the teacher and by the children. 

13. The close attention of all the members of the 
class so that each reads the whole lesson should be a 



96 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

constant and conscious aim in the teacher's mind. 
A lively interest, well kept up, is the best means of 
securing such attention. 

14. Children should be early trained to compre- 
hend at a glance several words grouped into a phrase 
or clause. This is developed (a) by quick writing of 
such phrases on the board ; (b) by exposing phrases 
or sentences for instant recognition and again cover- 
ing them ; (c) by presenting momentarily phrases or 
short sentences on cardboard ; (d) by observing 
pauses and grouping words in reading. This habit 
of grouping words to express the larger thought rela- 
tions in sentences should begin in the primary and 
continue through the grades. 

15. The phonic drills, above described, lay emphasis 
upon clear pronunciation and distinct articulation 
both in pupils and teachers. The importance of es- 
tablishing this early habit is such as to carry weight 
into all the later studies. Teachers should master 
the phonic elements and apply them with care and 
precision. 

16. Natural and appropriate expression in reading 
is secured, (a) by the teacher using easy and natural 
tones in speaking ; {b) by the use of interesting stories 
suited to the children ; (c) by questions touching the 
strong points in the story ; (d) by acting out or dram- 
atizing the scenes ; (e) by occasional examples of 
lively reading by the teacher. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 97 

17. Let the teacher keep an alert eye for all that is 
going on, and not be too attentive to the book. 

18. Use the blackboard freely in working with new 
or difficult words. 

INTERMEDIATE AND GRAMMAR GRADES 

1. When the children have once learned how to 
read in the first three grades, the reading work of the 
following years (fourth to eighth inclusive) should be 
a study of literature, an enjoyment of the choice 
stories and poems suited to their years, a growing and 
many-sided appreciation of the work of superior 
writers. 

2. To teach well a choice piece of literature, like 
"The King of the Golden River," or "Tubal Cain," 
a full preUminary study of the selection is requisite, 
a study that goes into it from all sides, a study that 
reaches out from its central thought in all directions, 
a study that deals with the author, and whatever 
geographical or historical suggestions or literary asso- 
ciations are appropriate. 

3. The leading motive of such a piece becomes the 
center around which its thought is organized. All 
questions, discussions, and illustrations find their 
meaning in relation to this central thought. To give 
a vivid interpretation to this idea, to throw it into a 
strong light, is the purpose of whatever illustrations 
are presented. 



98 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

4. The warmth, animation, and freedom of the 
teacher's mind in deaHng with a story attract and draw 
the children to a similar enjoyment and appreciation. 

5. At first children know not how to approach 
a fine piece of literature. Its beauties and its sug- 
gestive imagery have little or no meaning to them. 
The teacher is a Hve interpreter, a discoverer of secret 
values. The children are to learn how to study, 
and better still how to perceive and enjoy a new 
world. 

6. In finding our way into a new piece of literature, 
the assignment of lessons becomes a fine art. There 
are difficulties of thought and difficulties of language. 
But difficulties are what children enjoy and appre- 
ciate if we are experts as guides. Difficult words 
or names cause children to stumble. Hard passages 
need to be pried open a little. 

7. In its scope the assignment should be immis- 
takably clear and definite, and posted in a conspicuous 
place on the blackboard as a guide to seat study. 

8. In the recitation, steady attention of all, which 
is so much desired, depends on what is offered. A 
rich and interesting lesson, happily circumstanced, 
will rivet attention. All this depends on the teacher's 
versatility and resources in handling the subject. 

9. The teacher's close attention to the book while 
children are reading, prevents her from observing what 
is taking place in the class. One can judge the reading 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 99 

of children much better without the book than with it. 
The teacher's close attention to the book is a very 
persistent error, and is a kind of book slavery. 

10. There is much mere formal reading in classes, 
that counts for little or nothing in the way of progress. 
There should always be a vigorous spirit and effort 
in pursuit of definite aims. Why should children ever 
be allowed to read in a humdrum way, careless or 
indifferent ? 

11. How to question, and what to do with children's 
answers in reading, suggest serious problems for 
teachers. One can waste much time in trivial and 
empty questions. A few questions are vital and 
should be followed up. 

12. Children should be led to interpret passages for 
themselves. But there is often room for wide variety 
of interpretation. Teachers are disposed to insist 
upon their own interpretation of passages, even when 
the child's idea is a good one and worthy of accept- 
ance. Give children more freedom for their own in- 
terpretation, subject to responsible discussion. Let 
them keep their bearings and interpret parts in rela- 
tion to the whole. 

13. A quick imagination and a sense of humor are 
indispensable for picturing scenes and for interpreting 
images and figures. Physical modes of expression 
and impersonations of character are means of stimu- 
lating the imaging power of children. 



lOO HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

14. The use of dialogue and dramatic action and 
representation are among the best means of breaking 
up the formality in reading, of creating interest and of 
producing freedom and self-forgetfulness. The large 
amount of time required for such drills and rehearsals 
is amply paid for in clearness and force of expression, 
in the realism and awakening of thought, and in in- 
creased language power. Children sometimes work 
up their own dramatizations. 

15. Without too much loss of time children in these 
grades should learn to help themselves in meeting 
difficulties: (i) by mastering verbal problems ; (2) by 
thinking out the meaning of obscure or involved pas- 
sages ; (3) by seizing upon the broader thought rela- 
tions of an entire selection. Teachers should be full 
of devices for getting more serious and sustained 
thinking. Set up definite problems and touch up the 
pride and feeling of children to work out such riddles 
for themselves. 

16. Encourage children in their lesson study to 
think out important questions and problems for class 
discussion, and to come prepared to ask questions on 
parts that are of doubtful meaning. 

17. This tendency to more independent and mature 
thinking may be cultivated by comparing similar 
ideas and figures of speech or sentiments in a variety 
of poems and stories from different authors. 

18. Throw responsibility upon the children for 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES lOI 

giving to the listening class the content of a printed 
page. Let each child bring in a passage or story to 
read for the instruction or entertainment of the class. 

19. Let each child have some well-selected story 
or poem which he works upon at home till he can read 
it well before the class for their entertainment and 
instruction. Decline hearing it till it is well prepared. 

20. The teacher, after careful preparation and drill, 
should occasionally read a passage in the best way he 
is able, for the purpose of suggesting the higher ideals 
and spirit of good reading. High standards are thus 
set up. 

21. Study the thought relations in the sentence, 
by grouping words into larger thought wholes, with 
suitable pauses, so as to throw them into proper 
relation to the sentence as a whole. Here grammar, 
analysis, and reading come together. 

22. Let the teacher drill himself and the children 
in clear-cut enunciation of short vowels, final conso- 
nants, and correct vowel sounds. Cultivate also a 
quick ear for accurate enunciation in the pupils, and 
for pleasing tones. Frequent drills, singly and in 
concert, are necessary. 

23. Use kindly ingenuity, by indirect methods, to 
overcome nasality, stuttering, nervously rapid reading, 
monotone, singsong, and slovenly utterance. 

24. By physical exercises, work for deep breathing, 
good physical position, and a self-reliant spirit. 



I02 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

25. Give variety to each lesson. Avoid monotony 
and humdrum. 

26. Each lesson should emphasize a particular aim 
determined by the nature of the selection, and by the 
previous habits and faults of the children. 

27. A reading teacher from time to time should 
work out a detailed and elaborate treatment of some 
important story or poem suitable to the grade. This 
involves a rich and fruitful thought study, a collection 
of pictures, and perhaps maps, and other illustrative 
data. Also biographical, geographical, and his- 
torical material related to the selection ; in short, a 
model of organization and pedagogical treatment. 

4. Arithmetic 

PRIMARY GRADES 

1. Primary number work begins to fix and organ- 
ize the number facts. Incidental to the distribution 
and collection of materials, as pencils, paper, books, 
etc., and in connection with games and constructions, 
the number facts are brought to the front. 

2. The first problem is how to concrete arithmetical 
facts and processes, and second to determine the sys- 
tematic order in the treatment of topics. 

3. There should be abundant and varied use of 
measurement, employing a variety of concrete ob- 
jects and standard units as a basis for measuring. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 103 

The children themselves should handle the objects and 
make the measurements. 

4. The objects are sometimes used too long. As 
soon as children can image the relations without 
them, the objects should be discarded. 

5. Number work in the first and second grade 
should not be too narrowly limited (as it is in the 
Grube method, giving the number facts and relations 
in the first grade from one to ten) , but children should 
have a free range among number ideas within the Hmit 
of their experience. The numbers 12 (or dozen), 25 
(or quarter), and thirty (days in the month) are 
famihar to the children. 

6. Number exercises in grades should attach them- 
selves to interesting objects or experiences, which 
give a starting point, a thing to be measured, such as 
a gallon pail or a peck measure, or the seven days of 
the week, or the clock face, a thing to be analyzed 
and interpreted numerically. 

7. The formation of a series by analyzing a larger 
unit, either by counting or by additions, gives a mental 
movement which helps to hold the attention. In 
dealing with the seven days of the week we form the 
series 6+1 = 7, 5 + 2 = 7, 4+3 = 7. 2 + 5 = 7, 1+6 = 7. 
Drills on this series in irregular order come later. 

8. The multiplication table should be taken up in 
the natural and easy order as follows: lo's, 5's, 
2's, 4's, 8's, 3's, 6's, 9's, 7's. A comparison of similar 



I04 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

tables, as the twos with the fours, and both with the 
eights, will set the children to thinking and aid the 
memory. 

9. Oral work should greatly predominate in pri- 
mary grades. 

10. In written work on the blackboard and at their 
seats, children may become quite familiar with sym- 
bols of number and operation. 

1 1 . In making up oral problems the teacher should 
keep within the children's experience of local objects 
and interests. The children themselves may be 
asked to make up problems. 

INTERMEDIATE GRADES 

1. In these grades we continue to learn arithmet- 
ical facts and their relations, and to master the chief 
processes. This mastery of processes has two steps : 
(i) their derivation out of illustrative examples; 
(2) repeated and varied application. 

2. The inductive-deductive thought movement is 
well demonstrated in working out these processes with 
children. 

3. The introduction to a process is best made by 
seeing the necessity for it by meeting with some diffi- 
culty or problem to be solved, e.g. How can we add 
3f and 2f inches ? We need a means or process for 
uniting such fractions. 

4. Illustrate a process first by some simple problem 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 105 

(often an oral one is better). It can best be based 
upon some familiar objects or blackboard sketch with 
dimensions that can be measured. Other simple 
oral problems may follow. 

5. Open up at once a close connection between this 
new process and a similar process previously studied. 
In working out long division, the steps previously used 
in short division will be found illuminating. It is by 
basing the new lesson upon things which the children 
already know, or if they have forgotten must first re- 
call and make use of, that children can do any real 
thinking, can get the habit of understanding new 
things for themselves. 

6. A simple written problem, worked out at the 
board by the teacher, before the children, with oc- 
casional questions, may still further aid in bringing 
out the new process. Other written problems may 
follow this. 

7. Look back now over these several problems 
both oral and written, and discover any points of 
resemblance. Children should have a chance, by 
thoughtful comparison, to discover the common points 
that go to make the process. If children merely 
accept the teacher's explanations and conclusions, 
they will work mechanically. 

8. To keep the class attention in the effort to fix 
a process, so that the wandering thought of even 
careless children will be held long enough to catch 
the chief points, requires a quick and alert teacher. 



Io6 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

9. Be not in haste to formulate a rule. Rules of 
operation were formerly given too soon. Oftentimes 
now they are not given at all. But some sort of 
simple statement resulting from comparisons and in- 
ductions seems desirable. In trying to make sure of 
processes, do not belabor and tease children with 
long verbal and written analyses of these processes. 
These are difficult and exasperating and time-de- 
vouring. 

10. Oral problems (mental arithmetic), because of 
their simplicity and clearness, have a double use: 
(i) as a means of introducing a new process, (2) as 
a means of rapid and varied drill and application after 
the process has become clear. 

11. When the whole process has been made plain 
by simple oral and written problems, its application 
to a variety of more difficult problems is made till 
quickness and accuracy are developed both in inter- 
preting problems and in figure processes. 

12. The wider apphcation of number processes to 
practical affairs and to other studies like geography, 
applied science and history, and to trades and indus- 
tries, has two distinct merits. First, it gives greater 
facihty in thinking and using the processes ; second, 
it gives a broad interpretation of the world and a 
sharper insight into many complex situations. In 
short, mathematical principles underlie the whole 
structure of the physical world and of society. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 107 

13. The working out of a group of connected prob- 
lems relating to some large unit of study, like the 
grain production of the United States or the Panama 
Canal, or the cost and losses of the Civil War, gives a 
much -needed illumination of such topics. On the 
numerical side they are not specially difficult. 

14. Over-technical and over-difficult problems and 
artificial arithmetical puzzles can be omitted from 
grade work. They belong to later years or to those 
persons having special leisure. 

15. Careful and complete verbal forms of analysis 
have dropped somewhat into disuse. In any case 
they should be preceded by the working out of many 
simple, oral and written problems, till the process is 
first clear. The main thing is to see that a child is 
thinking clearly, and this can be determined by ques- 
tions and brief answers. 

16. Correct mathematical statements are required. 
Careless and faulty and absurd language and formulas 
are not uncommon ; e.g. 6 ft. X 6 ft. = 36 sq. ft. Care- 
less, slipshod statements are altogether too common. 

17. In working a class together at the board, have 
children take their places and obey orders promptly. 
Do not allow them to write till they know or have 
imaged clearly the thing to be written. Awaken a 
strong effort for independence, for accuracy, and for 
quickness. Require board work to be clear, neat, 
and legible. In explaining examples at the board. 



I08 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

see that the whole class is in position to follow the 
work attentively. 

1 8. The continuity of thought processes in arith- 
metic deserves very special emphasis. The vital 
connection between the earlier, fundamental, and the 
later derivative parts of arithmetic suggests that both 
teachers and pupils must be kept wide awake in every 
lesson to much that precedes. Young teachers make 
the mistake of teaching each subject (as factoring or 
percentage) as an independent, self-existent object of 
study. Merely to go through a textbook without 
picking up the loose strings and tying things together 
is to fail in the most essential part. Failing to grasp 
the few simple underlying facts and principles, the 
whole subject lacks organic unity in the teacher's 
mind as well as in the pupil's. In the textbook these 
vital relations are not seen, are not in evidence. The 
teacher must read them into the book between the lines 
and between the subjects. Dr. John W. Cook says, 
"If pupils are to become expert in arithmetical opera- 
tions, they must learn to factor numbers with celerity. 
Especially is this the case in Least Common Multiple, 
Greatest Common Divisor, Fractions, Percentage and 
its Applications, and Proportion." 

19. In assigning a lesson upon a new topic, a good 
share of the recitation period may well be spent in 
thus bringing up the reserves of knowledge as a prep- 
aration for attacking the new subject. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 109 

20. There is a great danger, with less experienced 
or less thoughtful teachers, of moving too rapidly 
through the book. Children may do all the problems 
in a book and still have a very poor knowledge and 
mastery of the subject. 

21. A good textbook is necessary for both pupils 
and teachers. One of the serious faults of teachers is 
their failure to give a careful study to the whole plan 
of the author so as to discover his point of view and 
method of treatment. 

22. There are certain necessary defects or limita- 
tions in textbooks. They cannot furnish a sufficient 
number of oral problems, nor of practical applications. 
They cannot supply any complete illustration of pro- 
cesses, including measuring, diagramming, paper 
folding, etc. Finally, they fail to show clearly that 
fundamental connection of principles running through 
all the processes. 

23. The textbook, therefore, is not to be blindly 
followed by the teacher, but certain parts more 
emphasized and supplemented, others reduced or 
modified — and the whole strengthened in the con- 
nection of its parts. 

GRAMMAR GRADES 

I. The sources of weakness in grammar school 
arithmetic are (i) carelessness and inaccuracy in 
fundamental operations, and (2) lack of self-reliant 
power to grapple with difficult problems. 



no HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

2. Inaccuracy and carelessness can be corrected 
and the mind toned up by vigorous and varied oral 
work. Sharp attention, accuracy, and speed can be 
gained. 

*' Mental arithmetic is the life and soul of rational 
method. It is firmly held that, compared with written 
arithmetic alone, mental arithmetic, if systematically 
taught, will produce at least twice the knowledge and 
twice the power in a given time." (McClellan and 
Ames.) Mr. Cook observes that a large share of the 
problems in fractions and in other subjects usually 
worked out with pencil and paper can be worked out 
orally. In fact, they are much quicker and better 
worked orally, e.g. What are the prime factors of 450 ? 
450 = 9 X 50 = two threes as factors, two fives, and 
two. 

3. The most discouraging thing in grammar grades 
is the flabby helplessness of many full-grown children 
in attacking difficult problems. The readiness to 
grapple with difficulties, the eagerness to wage war 
with a new problem, without help from the teacher, 
betokens a strong, energetic spirit and is to be gotten 
at all hazards. 

4. One must appeal at first to the stronger and 
more stubborn spirits, and through them stir up a vig- 
orous class spirit. Many naturally capable children 
fall into the habit of being fed on an easy diet. Chil- 
dren must become conscious of their powers. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES III 

5. One of the most delicate and diplomatic prob- 
lems of the teacher in instruction is how to wisely 
help children. The best help the teacher can give 
them is to convince them that they need no help. 

6. Before any operations are performed, it is nec- 
essary to think clearly the conditions of the problem 
and to ask one's self the main question that throws all 
the parts into proper perspective. The teacher can 
afford to spend his best effort and work very cautiously 
with children while they are struggling with the general 
thought side of a problem, the effort to get at the main 
idea or secret that unravels the whole. 

This prehminary survey, this effort to get an intelli- 
gent grasp of the whole situation is the chief stum- 
bling block in all hard problems. The reckoning 
processes are comparatively easy. The common 
complaint is that children do not think ; they begin to 
figure on a problem before they have clearly grasped 
its conditions and meaning. 

7. Often children fail to read a problem intelli- 
gently. So they need a lesson in reading, in thought 
interpretation, before putting pencil to paper. This 
also involves clear imagery as a basis, and to aid this 
we use diagrams or other modes of appeal to the imag- 
ing power. 

8 . The cultivation of self-reliant power in solving new 
problems has long been regarded as a pecuHar virtue of 
arithmetic. To fail in this is therefore a radical failure. 



112 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

9. One important time for review drills is the 
beginning of each term. " Complaints which teachers 
generally make of poor work in the preceding grade 
are not infrequently due to the one complaining; 
the engine is rusty, and it needs oiling before the 
serious start is made." (Smith.) In most grammar 
grades children will be found rusty in what they have 
been over, and it is wiser to clean up and scour up the 
old armor than to plunge forward heedlessly into new 
conflicts. 

10. It is necessary sometimes to put the stronger 
pupils at work independently on advanced or special 
lines, and meanwhile to devote much time and care to 
slower pupils. Give quicker, abler pupils enough to 
do, and allow slower pupils time to think according 
to their knowledge and brain power. 

11. Teachers of arithmetic sometimes forget that 
children have emotions, and the more their emotions 
are unpleasantly agitated, the less capable they are 
of strenuous and exact mathematical thinking. 

12. The grammar grades furnish the most varied 
opportunities for reviewing, mastering, and applying 
all the elementary processes. 

13. Arithmetic in these grades should emphasize 
the application of familiar processes of reckoning to 
the whole range of important topics in the school 
course which require numerical interpretation. With- 
out this illumination from mathematics many im- 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 113 

portant facts and bodies of knowledge in business, 
in geography, history, natural science, and in economic 
life remain hazy and unintelligible. Many of the 
large topics in history, science, and geography require 
a mathematical interpretation by means of a series 
of relevant statistical problems. 

14. The teacher should be flexible and rationally 
sympathetic in adapting his standards to the varying 
ability and needs of children. 

5. Nature Study and Science 

In the nature study and science instruction of the 
common school, teachers and specialists in elementary 
science have not yet reached a consensus of opinion 
as to the topics best suited for the grades. The 
methods of study are also variable. 

A few of the simple proposals may be stated as 
follows : 

1. The school by its treatment of nature lore in its 
various aspects, by means of observations, excursions, 
experiments in field, laboratory, and garden should 
produce an environment in which the love of nature 
grows and flourishes. 

2. The primary grades seem to be well adapted to 
the less formal and less intensive study of nature, 
by observations on outdoor life, weather charts, 
spring gardening, etc. 



114 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

3. Children are to find out the facts largely by 
their own observation, and even, to work out causal 
relations and think out conclusions on the basis of 
self-activity. 

4. Drawings, notebooks, weather records, and col- 
lections may serve to express their growing interest 
and knowledge. 

5. For intermediate and grammar grades a course 
of study, consisting of well-selected objects and units 
of thought, is needed as a basis for connected observa- 
tion and study. The heaviest work should have been 
performed for the teacher by those who select and 
arrange this series of lesson units. 

6. Presupposing that the teacher has an adequate 
practical knowledge of these topics, one of the main 
questions is: how to get the problems of science 
presented to children so as to bring them to the 
proper exercise of their independent powers of obser- 
vation and thought. 

7. Every plant or animal is a living mechanism 
whose organs have been developed and brought into 
action by the natural forces around it. Nature is 
therefore full of problems upon which to set children 
to work to observe adaptations. The machines and 
inventions of men for the purpose of turning nature's 
forces into useful channels are also embodied or ma- 
terialized problems. 

8. To ask the pivotal question which centers the 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 115 

child's observation and thought upon one of these 
problems and to keep his thought moving in the right 
direction is the teacher's business. Nature does most 
of the talking, if the teacher knows how to ask a few 
appropriate questions. 

9. The Hfe histories of plants and animals supply 
us with many of the leading units of study which fur- 
nish a continuous causal development and illustrate 
many of the fundamental Kfe processes; and ma- 
chines which embody the practical applications of 
science to life also furnish a very valuable series of 
problems. 

10. The method of working out one of these prob- 
lems requires a careful and intelligent observation of 
the facts, a tracing of the causal sequence running 
through the whole topic, a comparison with other simi- 
lar phenomena observed in nature, a derivation of 
the law or principle illustrated, and a broader survey 
to comprehend the wider application of this law. 
Without becoming too formal, the more important 
studies should follow this movement. A life history 
of the oak, of the corn plant, of the mosquito, the 
construction and working of a pump or steam engine, 
may illustrate this idea pf problem solving in nature 
and in man's inventions. 

11. The nature study excursion into the fields, 
woods, or garden is one of the chief means of opening 
up the world to children and of giving stimulus and 



Il6 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

purpose to other opportunities for observation in the 
world about them. 

12. Upon such an excursion it is well to have some 
controlling purpose to which observation is chiefly 
directed, such as the finding and study of song birds, 
or of some particular bird like the flicker. But 
general observations of trees and plants, of insects, 
of weather phenomena, may also come in for a good 
share of attention. 

13. Another important kind of observation is found 
in dealing with specimens which have been collected 
for classroom study. The inspection, arrangement, 
and grouping of specimens brought in by the children 
and teacher may be carried on so as to develop a 
knowledge of important groups of objects in nature, 
e.g. trees, insects, wild flowers, and weeds. 

14. Sometimes the teacher is overkind to the 
children in showing them what she sees. It is better 
for the teacher to keep in the background and to en- 
courage the children to hunt out things worth seeing, 
dropping a hint here and there to guide their obser- 
vations. 

15. In making experiments in the laboratory, fore- 
thought should be exercised by the teacher in provid- 
ing the necessary apparatus and equipment for suc- 
cessful experiment or in directing the children to 
do so. 

16. Often a diagram is the easiest and simplest 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 117 

method of presenting the fundamental idea, especially 
when the inner forces in the process are not visible, 
as in the steam engine, and in the circulation of the 
blood. 

17. The nature study and science teacher should be 
expert in the use of graphic modes of illustration, such 
as sections, working drawings, diagrams, models, and 
apparatus. Many devices are necessary to objectify 
and make tangible the teachings of science, e.g. the 
blackboard is employed to illustrate the parts and 
arrangements of flowers, and seeds, the growth of 
trees, the parts of insects, etc. 

18. The question, to what extent teachers in science 
lessons should present to children facts not capable 
of presentation to the senses, brings up an interesting 
problem. The wild duck cannot be followed toward 
the pole except in imagination. The unit of instruc- 
tion which requires to be cleared up as a whole, must 
determine to what extent these facts beyond the child's 
observation are to be drawn upon. 

19. The underlying continuity of science lessons 
through the grades is an important question for the 
future. Elementary science lessons group themselves 
around a few centers, — the home, the school, the gar- 
den, the woods, and home fields. The recurring seasons 
and years bring these topics into fresh review, and 
help to establish this unity. Correlation with other 
studies also aids to unify the scattered facts. 



Il8 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

6. History 

1. In primary grades there is no regular'instruction 
in history. But in celebrating holidays like Thanks- 
giving, the Lincoln and Washington birthdays, we use 
the appropriate stories as a prelude to history. 

2. In fourth and fifth grades we employ chiefly the 
pioneer history stories of our own country and of the 
great navigators and explorers, like Columbus and 
Magellan. The hero stories of other countries, as 
Bruce of Scotland, Alfred of England, Cincinnatus, 
Ulysses, and David, should also find place in the 
reading or history lessons. 

3. The oral treatment of these stories should be 
developed as a distinct art. The rough adventure and 
realism of pioneer Ufe, its hardships and heroism, 
should stand out plainly in vivid narrative and de- 
scription. In history the real presentation largely 
takes the place of the object in natural science studies. 

4. In each of the grades (fourth and fifth) a half 
dozen of the more important stories, Hke those of 
John Smith, Champlain, Lincoln, George Rogers 
Clark, and La Salle, should be elaborately worked 
out in oral lessons, using maps and blackboard sketches, 
pictures of frontier life and scenes, forts, flatboats, 
log houses, costumes, weapons, modes of travel, 
home life, and customs. 

A child's introduction to history through oral 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 119 

treatment becomes thus strong and real ; he forms the 
habit of imaging actions and situations and feels a 
keen interest in these stalwart characters. This 
teaches him how to construct and realize historical 
scenes. 

5. Presupposing such an introduction into the real- 
ism of history, the children are prepared to read and 
interpret other similar stories for themselves. In this 
manner only half the stories would require a full oral 
treatment by skillful instruction. The children should 
learn to use the books and work out clearly for them- 
selves the other stories. 

6. The geographical basis for these stories, dis- 
played in blackboard drawings and maps, should be 
unmistakably clear. The teacher should accustom 
himself to sketch maps and diagrams freely on the 
board, while presenting topics. Let the children later 
do the same. 

7. The teacher's mind should shape up the story 
into a series of unities or distinct topics, each of which 
has a central point with a body of associated facts 
which find their meaning in relation to this center. 

8. As each topic is presented by the teacher, dis- 
cussed and reproduced by the children, it should be 
distinctly phrased and placed as part of an outline 
on the board. This outline of the whole story, pre- 
served in some permanent notebook form, becomes 
the basis for reproductions, comparisons, and final 
reviews. 



I20 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

Teachers usually have much difficulty, at first, in 
making and in adhering to such clear and definite 
outlines. The power to get at the essential segments 
or pivotal points in the story is a logical training for 
the teacher and is worth all the trouble it costs. 
Without it the whole treatment falls more or less into 
confusion. 

9. Under a teacher who will do this, children cannot 
fail to be trained into logical and rational modes of 
thinking. 

10. Adequate reproduction of the story by the chil- 
dren, sometimes oral, occasionally written, is indis- 
pensable. Complete sentence construction and con- 
nected discourse, with but Httle suggestion or question 
by the teacher, make the true standard of requirement. 

11. Good oral instruction is a doubly difficult art, 
requiring masterly work on the teacher's part and 
a masterly response on the part of the children. 
When well done, it stimulates interest and attention, 
develops logical thinking power, stirs up self-activity 
in thought, and brings ideas into good language ex- 
pression. 

12. History stories, when clearly thought out, have 
in them a natural logic. They trace out a causal, 
chronological sequence. Every good story is a series 
of problems, each one leading on to the next. The 
story of the Lewis and Clark expedition is a string 
of adventurous problems, a succession of acute situa- 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES I2I 

tions, calling for ingenuity and good judgment in 
meeting new and strange difficulties. Keen foresight 
and thoughtful adjustment are in constant demand. 
What a chance is this for setting children's thoughts 
free to struggle with difficulties ! 

13. One peculiar advantage of the pioneer stories 
is that the situations are simple and crude, such as a 
child can grasp. Stories taken from later, more 
complex, topics are not so easy to work with. They 
belong to a later period of history. 

14. These stories deal with typical situations and 
admit of a wide range of comparisons, an important 
means of self-reUant thinking, e.g. compare Fremont 
with Lewis and Clark; George Rogers Clark with 
Cortez ; Columbus with Magellan ; Washington with 
Lincoln. 

15. There is no fixed order in the arrangement of 
frontier stories. Chronology is relatively unimpor- 
tant. The main requirement is that of a complete, 
well-rounded story, with a rich setting in life, and a 
strong exhibition of character. 

16. When we begin with the settlement of America 
and the colonial period, we take up history in its or- 
derly and systematic development, including chrono- 
logical sequence. 

17. Li the colonial period we meet men (and colo- 
nies) who represent those important ideas that have 
continued to develop through our whole history and 



122 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

are still operative. These ideas, in their growth, give 
us a basis for strong continuity of thought in the 
course of study. 

1 8. The big units in the colonial period have been 
selected with much care, and each should be presented 
in a large, comprehensive, and luminous description. 
A full treatment of two or three leading topics of each 
of the four principal colonies, with plenty of time for 
description and biographical detail, is better than a 
more condensed and uniform treatment of all the 
thirteen colonies. 

19. A few of the leading biographies, such as Win- 
throp, Penn, Franklin, and Berkeley, are worthy of 
full descriptive treatment as a means of graphic, 
almost dramatic, presentation of colonial happenings. 
Biographies of real leaders are good centers of organi- 
zation. 

20. The completer study of four or five colonies, 
one after another, furnishes an uncommonly good test 
of the plan of reviews by comparison. Such a study 
brings children into close touch < with the natural 
development of American ideas. It is a good illustra- 
tion of inductive method. 

21. In all later studies children should be allowed to 
trace back the causes, to return again and again to 
former studies, and to pick up the threads of connec- 
tion between past and present. The study of the 
past should lead up to and explain the present. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 123 

22. Throughout the colonial studies it is necessary 
to go deeper into the causes of emigration from Europe, 
the reHgious persecutions, the desire for colonial ex- 
pansion, and into conditions of life and government 
among the Old World states that first peopled America. 
The first half of many leading topics lies in Europe. 

23. In the study of the colonies, children should 
learn to use books of reference, biographies, source 
materials, maps, and chapters or extracts from the 
larger histories, such as Irving, Fiske, and Bancroft. 
Children must be taught systematically how to use 
books and references. 

24. In describing the customs and character of 
people in different colonies, a picturesque variety is 
found among the sober Puritans, the mirth-loving 
French, the solid Dutch, the broad-brimmed Quakers, 
the Germans, and Scotch-Irish, to say nothing of 
Indians and Negroes. We hardly need to go abroad 
to find richness and variety in life. 

25. As the leading colonies are studied one after 
another and compared in their struggle with Royal 
governors, in their developing constitutions and modes 
of government, and as the closer relations of the colo- 
nies with each other slowly develop, we come into 
close touch with the natural growth of American 
ideas. 

26. In teaching any of these larger topics, abimdant 
and well-organized knowledge is the first essential. 



124 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

27. The regular reading work of the schools, by 
selections from ''The Courtship of Miles Standish," 
"Grandfather's Chair," and other similar literary 
materials, will contribute much to the enlargement 
and enrichment of history studies. 

GRAMMAR GRADE HISTORY 

1. The period from 1760, with the withdrawal of 
France from America, to 1789, when our federal Con- 
stitution went into effect, deserves a full year's study 
in the grammar school. 

2. A few leading topics of fimdamental importance 
for this period can be selected for enlarged treatment, 
to serve as centers of thought and as types of historical 
method in elementary study. 

3. The biography of Samuel Adams during the 
eleven years preceding the battle of Lexington is a 
good center upon which to focus the study of causes 
leading to the Revolution. Adams was such a com- 
plete representative and molder of New England 
spirit, that his biography gives the very essence of the 
struggle against England. Then compare him and 
his work with that of other leaders in New England, 
in the Middle and Southern colonies. 

4. Burgoyne's Invasion is a good example of a 
large historical topic, complex in its relations but 
simple in its basal idea. A full descriptive account 
of this campaign would acquaint children with the 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 1 25 

difficulties, surprises, horrors, and shrewd forms of 
strategy in military movements. A study of its 
results is wide-reaching in import. 

5. The person and influence of Washington are the 
central point of interest and of interpretation for the 
leading topics of the war. 

6. Benjamin Franklin's career in France during 
the war is not only picturesque and interesting, but 
it is also the point of view from which to judge the 
European situation. By his bringing France into 
coaKtion with the Colonies, the whole aspect of the 
war was changed and final success made possible. 

7. The life of Robert Morris is the best center from 
which to study the distressing financial difficulties 
of the Revolution. 

8. The Convention of 1787 furnishes material for 
studying one of the most interesting and important 
events in the world's history. For children, one of 
the simplest modes of comprehending it is to study 
somewhat carefully a few of the leading men in the 
convention, so as to get the strong individualistic 
point of view of each. In this convention all the most 
powerful tendencies of American history, with their 
roots deeply embedded in the past, were represented. 
By reviews and comparisons let the children discover 
that much of the previous history of the country, in 
essence, is registered in the Constitution. 

9. The Revolutionary history gave rise to much 



126 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

of our best ballad literature, and to many of the ora- 
tions which have become standard expressions of the 
patriotic American spirit. 

10. The problem for the teacher in dealing with this 
period of our history is to collect and organize the 
complex and abundant material of these central 
topics. This involves the proper use of textbooks 
and of reference materials. 

11. The proper class discussion of such topics in- 
volves, first, the determination of the main heads in 
proper sequence ; second, the grouping of details, facts, 
and descriptions around these heads; third, the re- 
flective study of causal and logical relations ; fourth, 
comparisons on the basis of Hkenesses and differences. 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD 

1. How to deal wisely with a few large topics of 
the constitutional period is the problem of the last 
part of the grammar school. 

2. Most of these large topics have a continuous, 
causal sequence extending through this whole period. 
For example, the growth in territory up to the present, 
the expansion of slavery and the negro problem, immi- 
gration with its successive changes and increasing 
importance, the westward expansion of population, 
trade and production, inventions, etc. 

3. The continuity, the causal sequence of develop- 
ment in each of these large topics, should be main- 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 127 

tained, in spite of the growing complexity and in- 
tricacy of our more recent history. 

4. The gigantic growth and progress of our nation 
in its larger, more important aspects should be clearly 
demonstrated. The spirit of the people, the repre- 
sentative men, and the dominant ideas which He at 
the basis of this remarkable growth are to be clearly 
set forth. 

5. By following up these main topics consistently 
through our history, boys and girls will find that our 
present problems are merely the continuation of these 
long-developing ideas and issues. One leading pur- 
pose is to understand the present in the light of the 
past. 

6. We must take time to elaborate these large 
topics, to gather up and organize a body of facts suffi- 
cient to bring out the full, clear meaning of each of 
these continuously expanding ideas or principles. 
The quick hothouse methods of memorizing a series 
of important facts, an epitome of American history, 
is thoroughly artificial and unproductive. 

7. In the eighth grade we have the best opportunity 
for careful reviews by means of systematic compari- 
sons of later events with those studied in earHer 
periods. For example, modes of travel to-day, on 
steamboats and railroads, may be compared with 
riding by horseback or in stagecoaches in colonial 
times and later. To keep children thoughtful in see- 



128 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

ing resemblances and contrasts between the earlier 
and later events is the true method of rational and 
interesting review. 

8 . The opportunity for problem-solving is furnished 
on a large scale in our later history ; e.g. when Ham- 
ilton took charge of the treasury under Washington, 
he had the great problem of restoring credit and of 
estabHshing a sound financial system for the new 
government just starting out on its great career. Let 
the children join with Hamilton in working out this 
problem. 

9. The history taught in the eighth grade should 
be a constant commentary on the Constitution. The 
history of the last hundred twenty-five years has been 
a series of practical tests of the strength and flexibil- 
ity of the Constitution in meeting the demands of a 
rapidly growing country. This is the best method 
for the study of civil government. 

10. In the eighth grade, as in earlier years, there 
should be a concentration of study upon a few of the 
great biographies, such as Hamilton, John Quincy 
Adams, Daniel Webster, Lincoln, and Fulton. 

11. A well-organized textbook containing a simple 
introductory treatment of the more important topics 
will furnish the general framework for the reception 
of fuller material from other sources, from larger 
special histories, from biographies and source books, 
and from special contributions by the teacher. A 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 129 

good textbook is invaluable as a guide through the 
labyrinth of history. 

12. In the assignment of the lesson we should pave 
the way for a more intelligent and interesting study of 
the textbook and for the proper selection and use of 
references, sources, etc. 

13. Chronology offers a necessary framework within 
which to arrange the materials of history. The 
grouping of history into periods and epochs is valu- 
able, and the concentration of events around a few 
important dates is advantageous. 

14. "A successful teacher must have more than 
mere accurate information and professional knowl- 
edge. He needs to have a living sympathy with the 
tale he tells. He must know how to bring out the 
dramatic aspects of the story." (Report of the 
Committee of Seven.) 

7. Music 

I. From the teacher^ s point of view : 

a. It must be remembered that singing is but 
one form of voice expression. The elements 
of this form are time, pitch, quality, and 
force; and upon these elements and their 
variations is based the art of teaching vocal 
music to children. 

h. There is a vast difference between learning a 



I30 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

song that one may sing it well, and learning 
a song that one may teach it to children. 

c. The teacher needs to acquire the power of 

judging and choosing those songs best 
suited to the children. A child's song 
should be simple, bright, and happy, both 
in word and melody. Above all, the 
thought must be interesting and worth 
while. 

d. The teacher in starting a new song must 

know : (i) the key of the song ; (2) upon 
what note the song begins; (3) how to 
keep the time; (4) method of approach 
and attack upon the new elements presented 
in this particular song; (5) method of 
closing the day's lesson upon this song. 

e. Since singing is, as has been indicated, one 

form of vocal expression, attention must 
be given to the interpretation of the thought 
and motive which lie back of the song, as 
well as to the bare technique of the notes 
and their rendition. 
II. From the pupils' point oj mew: 

a. There is but one correct singing position — 
erect. Likewise there is but one position 
for the books. 

h. Children must learn to listen for the tone — 
C above middle C — always given softly 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 13 1 

by the leader. In the upper grades children 
should be taught to find all keys from this 
C. 
c. Children should sing softly and within the 
compass of their voices. Under these con- 
ditions there is but little danger of singing 
too much. Children's voices are usually 
limited to the lines and spaces of the staff. 
The mouth must be well opened, and the 
. .. lower jaw should drop easily. Constant 
practice with open vowels to secure the 
natural use of the lips and jaw will be of 
much help. 
^ (^. Do not let children sing with expressionless 
faces. Make them enjoy the song and the 
singing of it, whatever the cost. It may be 
well to stop in the midst of a song and en- 
gage pupils in conversation to the end that 
naturalness may be secured, and that the 
— '• . strained and contracted throat tone may be 
y relieved. 

\^. e. With monotones, work upon the basis of the 

natural speaking voice. Let the child 
imitate whistles or steam cars, play Indian, 
cuckoo, wind ; as a last resort, hum. 
III. The movement in teaching a song: 

In all good teaching the movement is concerned, 
first, with the concreting of the central ideas ; 



'C' 



132 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

second, with the abstracting of these worth- 
while units ; and third, with their compari- 
son. This holds as true in music teaching 
as in the teaching of other subjects. Each 
rote song represents a thought unit, and in 
the mastering of these rote songs and similar 
exercises there is acquired a large stock of 
concrete materials ; for example, knowledge 
of time, pitch, key, notation, phrasing, etc., 
through the entire gamut of elementary 
technique. This vast mass is valueless as it 
stands. It becomes of the greatest impor- 
tance, however, the instant we abstract from 
the heterogeneous stock those essentials 
which go to build up a well-balanced, sym- 
metrical organization known as a song, 
which is always a central idea itself or is 
representative of it. Other central ideas or 
songs are eventually mastered, and these 
afford bases of valuable comparisons. In 
brief, then, the movement in teaching vocal 
music to children is from the rote song with 
its wealth of concrete detail to the com- 
pleted idea which we know as a purposeful 
song. Accordingly, we shall concern our- 
selves first with the acquisition of the body 
of preliminary knowledge. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 133 
CONCRETING THE IDEA 

The first requisite toward the attainment of a valid 
stock of music experiences upon which to base the 
work is in the training of the ear. Ear training has 
three stages or phases : observation, recognition, and 
reproduction. 

1. Observation. — If children are taught to listen 
to certain definite sounds (whistles, birds, singing, 
etc.), they will soon observe something as to the "up- 
ness" and "downness" of tones ; also the kind of tone 
(high or low, shrill or sweet; long or short; far or 
near). How does the bird sing? the whistle sound? 
the bee ? etc. Sing to the children ; how many long 
sounds ? short ? Did you sing up or down ? 

2. Recognition. — Sing songs they know (humming). 
Play songs on the organ, and see if the children know 
them. Give 'the children do, and then play separate 
notes on the organ. Have the children give you the 
syllables. 

3. Reproduction. — The last step in ear training 
is writing the melody on the staff. This should be 
followed by singing or playing the notes, or by writing 
the numerals. 

8. Spelling 

I. A careful drill in phonics and in clear phonetic 
analysis of words throughout the grades is a good 



134 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

general basis for spelling. For, contrary to the usual 
notion, the large majority of English words is spelled 
phonetically, or nearly so. 

2. Spelling should be mainly directed to the mas- 
tery of common words in daily use, such as children 
ordinarily make use of in composition and letter writ- 
ing; such words as thought, said, stayed, believe, 
although, once, knife, aid, which, till, repeat, price, 
idea, sentence, freeze, drown, etc. 

3. Words of rather uncommon occurrence, or those 
used only in literary writings, as of Irving or Macaulay, 
may be overlooked, e.g. surmised, acquiesce, inces- 
santly, designated, apprehension, mysterious, precipi- 
tation, etc. At any rate, the emphasis and drill 
should be placed on the common words. 

4. The chief rules of spelling, and those governing 
the formation of plurals, should be fully illustrated, 
memorized, and applied until correct habit has been 
formed. 

5. Spelling exercises should be chiefly executed in 
writing as the final and common form of applica- 
tion. 

6. Good standards of correct spelling should be 
maintained in all kinds of written work in other 
studies, in composition, letter writing, etc. 

7. Drills are needed from time to time in the cor- 
rect spelling of common geographical and historical 
names. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 135 

8. Teachers should practice the distinct articulation 
of words in giving out spelling lessons. 

9. In learning new and difficult words point out and 
emphasize the peculiar difficulty of each new word. 

9. Drawing 

1. The art of drawing, when applied to sketching 
and blackboard illustration in other studies, is of 
great value in many ways. 

2. Even without a knowledge of the technique of 
drawing, teachers of geography, history, science, and 
other studies may use the blackboard freely for 
sketching and diagramming to great advantage. 

3. On the other hand, students who have had full 
courses in drawing appear to be slow and hesitating 
in applying this very useful art to the other studies. 
This fault seems to show a lack of courage to launch 
out into the use of an art in new situations. 

4. Many ideas can be more quickly and clearly 
presented to children by means of a drawing than in 
any other way. A simple drawing placed on the board 
in half a minute will clear up a difficulty better than a 
long verbal explanation or description. 

5. Free-hand sketching on the blackboard in con- 
nection with nearly all studies is an indispensable 
means of prompt and clear illustration, and of economy 
of time in teaching. 



136 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

6. The teacher's example in the free use of the black- 
board before the children in sketching and illustrating 
points is quickly taken up by the children through 
imitation, and becomes a very important means of 
expression. 

10. Writing 

1. Board writing in primary grades should be with 
a large swing, free from small cramp. 

2. The letters should be made round, full, and 
plain. 

3. The teacher's board writing in movement and 
form should be a contagious example for the children.' 

4. Children's early writing on paper calls for a free 
movement and large hand in broad spacing. 

5. In intermediate and grammar grades, children are 
to be steadily and consistently trained in position and 
free arm movement, until a reasonably correct form is 
gained. 

6. Small, cramped writing and finger action should 
be avoided by constant encouragement to arm move- 
ment. 

7. If several teachers in succeeding grades follow 
the same plan of easy arm movement, the habit can 
be formed. 

8. The written work of children in language exer- 
cises and in other studies should be quietly held to a 
good standard of neatness and care. 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 137 

9. Steady and consistent effort through the grades 
following a common purpose and method are necessary 
to establish good habit in writing. 

II. The Manual Arts 

1. The purpose of the manual arts is to equip chil- 
dren with the controlling ideas and experiences of the 
primary industrial arts. 

2. In working out any unit of construction or con- 
crete object, correct thinking on the basis of facts is 
the first essential. A correct plan of construction 
presupposes full knowledge of the principles of con- 
struction and clear foresight into practical condi- 
tions. It is a strenuous and progressive thought 
problem. 

3. The execution of a well-formed plan requires 
some degree of skill in the use of tools and also some 
knowledge of materials. 

4. The early constructions of children are necessa- 
rily crude. Through the grades there should be a 
gradually improving standard of skill in work and of 
excellence in the product. A high degree of skill and 
accuracy in any art is not required in the elementary 
school. 

5. In executing complete projects of construction, 
as a table or book or bonnet, there is an excellent 
chance to encourage self-reliance and initiative and 



138 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

practical sense in dealing independently with tools 
and materials. 

6. Orderliness in the use and care of tools and mate- 
rials in shop work is of primary value. 

7. The choice of artistic in preference to inartistic 
forms in children's constructions should be steadily 
cultivated. 

8. The school should encourage the practical appli- 
cation of manual skill and knowledge to other studies 
and to school and home problems and needs. 

9. Problems of construction furnish excellent con- 
crete types of correct method in teaching. Teachers 
generally can well afford to acquire some skill and 
practical acquaintance with the processes, tools, and 
materials of the primary arts. 

12. Cross Applications of Knowledge between Studies 

1. As soon as children have learned to read, at 
the end of the third or fourth grade, they should be 
held to a vigorous use of this ability in other studies. 
Teachers should see to it that they interpret keenly 
and express fittingly whatever they read. In this 
sense, all lessons become applied reading, reading put 
to its real uses. 

2. If we could see to it that children in the inter- 
mediate and grammar grades apply their reading 
power to history, arithmetic, and other studies, with 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 139 

lively appreciation and with full natural energy based 
on a sense of value, we could almost dispense with 
regular reading exercises. 

3. In this sense the actual reading of the problem 
in arithmetic, or of a paragraph in history, is a demon- 
stration that the child has clearly thought the thing 
out, has indeed already performed the main step in 
a thought process. On the other hand, dull, unre- 
sponsive reading is proof that the child's mind has no 
appetite for the subject. 

4. Language lessons are a device for teaching chil- 
dren the correct usages in EngHsh, and for starting 
them along right lines. But these beginnings of habits, 
made in language lessons, are to be strengthened and 
matured by close attention to correct language in 
all the other studies. Every subject either builds 
up and strengthens a child's language power, or else 
it weakens language by confirming him in faulty 
usages. Since language is the chief medium of ex- 
pression in all studies and throughout Hfe, a steady 
consistency in requiring correct usage is a basal 
necessity. 

5. Drawing and sketching, in simple, illustrative 
ways, should be generally applied, as a means of ex- 
pression, in all kinds of school studies. Freedom 
and versatility of expression by graphic devices are 
extremely valuable to teachers, and children easily 
drop into these modes by imitation. This applica- 



I40 HANDBOOK OF PRACTICE FOR TEACHERS 

tion of motor activities to other studies clarifies and 
reenforces thought in a quick and economical manner. 

6. The constructive activities of the manual arts, 
when applied to geography, and history, and science, 
and even to literature, in reconstructing objects and 
scenes, are a powerful means of realization. 

7. Spelling and phonics, as phases of language, 
are of universal appUcation. They are a basal ele- 
ment in all clear oral speech, and spelHng is the basis 
of correct form in written work. The early inculca- 
tion of correct habits, and persistent care throughout 
the grades in maintaining them in all studies, point 
out the only road to efficiency. 

8. Geography and history are so closely Unked 
together that neither can avoid a constant dependence 
on the other. History without maps and physical 
conditions would be very lame, and geography without 
historical introductions and associations would lose 
its background and much of its meaning. Geography 
is also closely bound up with natural science and mathe- 
matics, and its names are derived from all the varied 
languages of the earth. Much of the best Hterature 
is geographically conditioned. Geography connects 
up in vital ways with nearly all studies and best illus- 
trates the necessity for frequent excursions back and 
forth between the studies. 

9. The numerous ways in which nature study and 
science are appUed to other studies and contribute to 



SUGGESTIONS BEARING ON SCHOOL STUDIES 141 

their better understanding make necessary a con- 
stant interpretation of other studies from a basis of 
scientific knowledge; e.g. appHed science interprets 
most of our modern inventions and industrial pro- 
cesses, our sanitary improvements, etc. 

10. Even arithmetic is becoming a social study, 
furnishing the thought processes and modes of cal- 
culating by which we estimate values in history, 
geography, science, and, more or less, in all natural 
and human affairs. 

11. The imperative need for applying knowledge 
and habits gained in one study to other studies appears 
to be universal. We may well draw the conclusion 
that the knowledge gained in one study is chiefly 
valuable because it can be applied to the interpreta- 
tion of other studies. Knowledge gained in one 
study and not appHed to other studies fails to function 
and is scarcely worth the trouble of acquiring. 



'npHE following pages contain advertisements of a 
few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
CHICAGO BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS ATLANTA 



THE TARR AND McMURRY 

NEW GEOGRAPHIES 



First Book (complete) $0.65 Second Book (complete) $1.10 
First Book, Part One .40 Second Book, Part One .65 
First Book, Part Two .50 Second Book, Part Two .65 



They make Home Geography the basis of study for World 
Geography. 

They use type-forms developed from Home Geography as a basis 
for interpretation, appreciation, understanding, and definition. 

They make descriptive matter vivid by appropriate illustration; 
the facts plain by diagram, graph, or product-map ; the visualization 
complete by appropriate physical or colored map, studied in connec- 
tion with the text. 

They emphasize the essentials by synoptical outline. The leading 
facts stand out. 

They retain interest and make sure the application by timely 
suggestions, reviews, and comparisons. 

They treat each topic in its relation to man, introduce the problem 
question, and bring out cause and effect relation. 

They appeal to the child's interest in human life and activity, his 
wonder and curiosity, his sympathy and self-activity. 

They are adapted to the best methods of teaching and they suggest 
methods of study. 

The books are mechanically perfect. The maps are bound in. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 Fifth Avenue, New Terk 
CHICAGO BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS ATLANTA 



The Golden Rule Series 

By E. HERSHEY SNEATH, GEORGE HODGES and 
EDWARD LAWRENCE STEVENS 



READING WITH A MORAL PURPOSE 



This is a new series of Literary Readers containing selections 
carefully chosen for the vivid portrayal of ideal beauty in human 
life and character. They emphasize right action in human con- 
duct and suggest the correct moral response to situations within 
the experience of the child. While avoiding religious instruction, 
moral precepts and lectures, they teach the simple attainable 
virtues of school and home life, grade by grade, in an indirect 
manner, leaving the child to do his own moralizing. This is the 
first and only series of readers to concentrate attention on the 
problems of morality and their solution in an indirect manner. 

These books are all neatly and strongly bound, printed in 
large, clear type, on good paper, with appropriate illustration. 

I. The Golden Ladder Book, Third Grade 

IL The Golden Path Book, Fourth Grade 

IIL The Golden Door Book, Fifth Grade 

IV. The Golden Key Book^ Sixth Grade 

V. The Golden Word Book, Seventh Grade 

VL The Golden Deed Book, Eighth Grade 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 
CHICAGO BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS ATLANTA 



LIBRARY'OF CONGRESS m 

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019 809 896 6 






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